A Pearl By Any Other Name
by SK Dark Dragon
Summary: -Completed- READ AND REVIEW!- What would happen if a troublesome ten-year old possessing a strange power made friends with a certain jackal-headed god? A lot of trouble and danger, and an adventure that Yugi and the gang will never forget.
1. Chapter 1: Openings and Surprises

A Pearl By Any Other Name  
  
Chapter One: Openings and Surprises  
  
Notes: ^_^ Hey everyone! New story, new notes. Well, old disclaimers, I guess. XD I don't own YuGiOh or any of the characters from the manga or the anime. I DO own my own characters, Amber, Taerro, and Yami Taerro, and the new character that will be introduced in this story. -SK  
  
"And...thanks to everyone who read and reviewed our last story. ^_^ It really meant a lot to us. Oh, and yeah, the gang hasn't seen the last of Anubis yet. ^_~ Anyway, I guess with all said and done now, we'll start up our next adventure story." -Red  
  
Yep! ^_^ Oh, and one note from my last fic: Alan, I was just using the name of the card that I saw on the subtitles on my Japanese DVD, which aren't the most reliable when it comes to cards. What's the card really called? ^^;;  
  
***********  
  
Chapter 1: Openings and Surprises  
  
It was a clear and sunny day in the city of Domino, Japan, and the smoke from each breath hung in the air visibly moments after each word was spoken by most of the people outside.  
  
The students at Domino High School hugged their sweaters and coats around them tightly as they made a mad dash for the school bus or their rides that would take them home again that Friday afternoon.  
  
It was the first week of November, and Yugi Motou and his friends, unlike most of their classmates, were still inside the school building, waiting patiently outside the art classroom.  
  
Yugi leaned against the wall, letting his backpack sag to the floor, where it landed with a small thump. Beside him, Tea Gardner checked her watch, and sighed when she saw the time.  
  
"It's only 3:06," she informed Yugi, as well as their other friends, Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, Duke Devlin, Ryou Bakura, and Amber Johnson, an exchange student from America. "We still have almost 10 minutes to wait before the club starts."  
  
Yugi and Tea had seen a sign regarding a chess club that would be starting at their school, and had decided that they ought to at least check it out. Amber and Duke had readily agreed, both willing to try something new, and Bakura reluctantly decided to come along as well. It had been a bit tougher to convince Joey and Tristan of the worth in coming along, but in the end, both had given in to Tea and Yugi.  
  
Now, the seven of them were standing outside the door of the art room, where the club was going to be held. To Joey and Tristan's annoyance, no one else except Tomoya Hanasaki, a wimpy boy with glasses from their class, had shown up to participate in the club.  
  
"Man, I'm going to look so stupid when everyone finds out I've enrolled in chess club," Joey grumbled, glancing down both sides of the hallway nervously, as if he were afraid the entire school would suddenly start laughing.  
  
Tea sighed in irritation.  
  
  
  
"Joey, no one is going to CARE whether you've joined chess club or not," she told him sternly. "It's actually a great opportunity. They say chess really helps students."  
  
Tristan huffed.  
  
"I don't need help," he replied, playing with a yo-yo as he waited. "I just want to get home and play my new Playstation game."  
  
Tea narrowed her eyes.  
  
"You GUYS!" she groaned, putting a hand to her forehead.  
  
Duke shrugged, twirling a stay lock of his black hair around his index finger.  
  
"It doesn't really matter to me," he said simply. "Chess could be fun."  
  
  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"Yeah, any game's good enough for me to play," he agreed.  
  
Amber also nodded.  
  
"I've played a few times," she said to the others. "It's cool. There's lots of different openings and stuff, so that everyone sort of has their own tricks and traps. Kind of like Duel Monsters."  
  
Bakura nodded, hoping Joey and Tristan would lighten up to the whole thing upon hearing that. Joey, however, just shrugged and sighed. Amber looked down at her watch again, smiling eagerly, as if she were waiting for something.  
  
"What's with you, Amber?" Joey asked, bored. "You can't be THAT excited about chess club."  
  
Amber scowled a little, but didn't look all that irritated.  
  
"No, silly, I'm excited because my little cousin is going to arrive in Domino this evening for a visit," she explained, Duke nodding beside her.  
  
Yugi's eyebrows shot up.  
  
  
  
"Your little cousin?" he asked, tilting his head slightly.  
  
Tea's eyes lit up.  
  
"Oh, is she the cousin who sent you that letter you were reading last week?" she asked, remembering Amber talking about this while she was with her and Mai in the mall once.  
  
Amber nodded.  
  
"Yeah, I haven't seen Pearl in nearly a year, so it'll be kind of fun to catch up with her," she replied. "Plus, she's been taking beginner Japanese this year, so she'll be dying to see if she can communicate with any of you."  
  
Duke laughed at that statement.  
  
"Oh well, it should be interesting to meet her," Yugi said with a smile as Mr. Zaliki, their homeroom teacher, walked down the hallway and over to the art room, a set of silver keys jingling in his hands as he walked.  
  
"Greeeaat," Joey grumbled to Tristan as Tea and Yugi stepped aside so that Mr. Zaliki could unlock the door. "Mr. Z's the instructor?"  
  
Tristan didn't reply, although the look of pure irritation on his face told Joey that his friend agreed with him.  
  
"Inside, now," Mr. Zaliki muttered, motioning for everyone to enter the room.  
  
To everyone's surprise, their teacher really didn't look all that happy about having to teach a chess club as they filed into the classroom, and sat down at the long art tables, where a few boxes containing chess boards and pieces were placed in the center of each.  
  
Joey pulled out a knight and a bishop and examined them as Mr. Zaliki walked up to the front of the room and pulled down a long diagram of a chess board. At this, nearly everyone in the room began to look nervous. Could their strict homeroom teacher turn even a game into a subject as boring as his science class?  
  
Yami appeared beside Yugi, looking quite interested.  
  
"Hm, I think I'll learn this game as well," he thought to himself, sitting down in an empty chair, although Yugi and Bakura were the only ones in the room who could see him.  
  
"Now, we'll begin by learning the names of the pieces and how they move about the board," Mr. Zaliki began, in a manner not unlike the way he taught chemistry formulas.  
  
"This is going to be a long lesson," Joey grumbled, slumping down in his chair and narrowing his eyes in irritation.  
  
***********  
  
Across town, over at the Kaiba Corporation's headquarters, the tallest building in Domino City, Seto Kaiba was sitting at his desk, sorting through stacks of paperwork regarding the new products the company was about to put out on the market. The boy sighed as the document he had been looking for floated off the desk as he set down another stack.  
  
He was walking over to retrieve it when he noticed the door to the office open and his younger brother walk in, a smile on his face. Seto snatched the paper up and smiled at his brother.  
  
"Hi, niisama!" Mokuba chirped, putting his backpack down by the door.  
  
"Hello, Mokuba," he replied, replacing the paper on his desk. "How was school?"  
  
Mokuba grinned as he flopped down on the couch.  
  
"Okay," he said, glancing at his brother's bag, which was sitting on the ground beside the sofa.  
  
A hot-pink slip of paper was sticking out of the top, and caught the young boy's eye. Curiously, he pulled it out to examine it.  
  
"Just okay?" Seto asked, returning to his seat to enter the figures from the paper into the computer database.  
  
Mokuba didn't reply, as he was reading the piece of paper with interest. Seto raised an eyebrow and glanced over the side of his computer screen when his brother didn't respond.  
  
"Mokuba?"  
  
Mokuba jumped a little, then grinned embarrassedly.  
  
"Oh, sorry, niisama," he apologized, holding up the pink paper. "School was kinda boring, that's all. But why didn't you join this chess club that's advertised on this flyer? I mean, I know you're really good at it and everything..."  
  
  
  
Seto shrugged, then gestured toward the mound of paperwork sitting on his desk.  
  
"Well, for two reasons, really," he explained, putting down his sheet of paper and looking over at Mokuba. "Firstly, it's probably a beginner class, which I don't need. And secondly..."  
  
He looked down at the paperwork covering his desk with a sigh.  
  
"I have to enter these new figures by tonight, so doing anything this afternoon was completely out of the question anyway," he sighed.  
  
"Oh," Mokuba replied, still looking down at the paper. "Well, I'd better let you get back to work then," he said, standing up. "When will you be home?"  
  
Seto shrugged, growing more annoyed at the work by the second.  
  
"Probably late," he explained. "I'll call before I leave this evening."  
  
Mokuba smiled.  
  
"All right," he said cheerfully, although he wished his brother didn't have so much to do. "I'll just catch a ride home then."  
  
"Be careful," Seto warned, turning back to his work. "Bye."  
  
"Bye!"  
  
Mokuba shut the door to the office quietly and started off down the hallway. If Seto was busy, then what was he supposed to do? Other than homework, Mokuba thought to himself, shuddering. I'll put that off as long as possible. After all, it IS Friday.  
  
Just as the young boy was rounding the corner, however, he spotted someone that caused him to grin.  
  
"Hi, Priest!" he said cheerfully, waving at the nearly transparent figure that was hovering a few feet above the ground.  
  
The man looked nearly identical to his own brother, although this spirit was wearing ancient Egyptian clothing, and was roughly 3000 years older. He was Seto Kaiba's ancient self, who had been assigned by Bastet, the cat goddess of Egypt, to watch over Domino in her place, and more specifically, the Millennium Items.  
  
Priest Seto smiled down at Mokuba.  
  
"Hello, Mokuba," he responded. "What are you doing here?"  
  
Mokuba shrugged as he pushed the elevator button to go down to the bottom floor.   
  
"I just came over on my way home from school to see if niisama was finished," he replied as the elevator door opened, and he stepped inside, followed by the spirit, who looked at the elevator with suspicion.  
  
"I see," Priest Seto replied, as the elevator began its decent to the bottom floor. "Was he?"  
  
Mokuba shook his head.  
  
"Nah, he had a ton of paperwork on his desk," he muttered, as the elevator jerked to a stop as the bottom floor and the two stepped out. "He said he wouldn't be done till really late today."  
  
"Oh," Priest Seto replied, feeling sorry for the boy.  
  
Mokuba and his reincarnate were such good brothers, a fact that always made the spirit happy, considering some of the events that had happened in his past, back in ancient Egypt.  
  
"Well, since your brother is busy, is there anything I could do with you?" Priest Seto asked, hoping this would make Mokuba a bit happier.  
  
Mokuba grinned.  
  
"Maybe!" he said excitedly as he ran toward the doors. "Let's go home and find out!"  
  
***********  
  
Back at school, Mr. Zaliki had finished his half-hour lecture regarding how the pieces moved about the board that proved very beneficial to both Bakura and Tea, who were beginners at the game. Now, the students had been split up into groups of two, and were attempting to play games with each other.  
  
"Checkmate," Joey yawned, moving his queen across the board, over three of Tea's pawns, and right next to her king.  
  
Tea gritted her teeth, and put on a forced smile.  
  
"First of all, that's not checkmate because I can just take your queen with my king," Tea explained, demonstrating the move. "Secondly, the queen can't move over pieces. Only diagonally, and back and forth."  
  
Joey sighed.  
  
"Whatever," he muttered, taking his move back. "I'll just capture one of the wimpy guys then."  
  
"Pawns, Joey," Yugi corrected, smiling over at Hanasaki, who was flipping through an openings book. "Why don't we just try to make it through a game before deciding on an opening strategy, Hanasaki?" he suggested politely, having only made one move in the ten minutes that they'd been playing for.  
  
Hanasaki set the book down.  
  
"All right," he replied with a sigh, moving his knight out.  
  
Tristan was playing against Bakura, who already knew how to play chess, and was promptly creaming his opponent.  
  
"Man, there goes my last piece, other than the worthless king," Tristan muttered, flicking the white king with his fingertip. "Man, I don't like how you've got all your pieces out at once, and can't think about when to play one on the board."  
  
Bakura shrugged as he advanced his queen toward Tristan's side of the now quiet empty field.  
  
"That's just how chess it played, I suppose," he replied. "That's checkmate, by the way," he added in his innocent voice, trying not to smile.  
  
Tristan groaned and put his head down on the desk.  
  
"Ahh, lost again," he muttered.  
  
"Check," Duke declared, moving her bishop along the same diagonal as Amber's king.  
  
Amber jerked her head up and looked down at the board.  
  
"What? Oh, sorry," she muttered, blushing, moving her king out of the way of harm. "Just kinda distracted."  
  
She glanced out the window. Duke smiled as he moved another piece.  
  
"Aw, I'm sure you're cousin is fine," Duke replied, glancing down at his watch. "What time was she supposed to be at the Black Crown again, though?"  
  
Amber closed one eye, trying to remember.  
  
"I think it was...5:00 or somewhere around there," she muttered, opening both eyes again. "Why? What time is it?"  
  
Duke gulped.  
  
"Er...4:49," he muttered, glancing up at the front desk, where Mr. Zaliki was grading their science tests they had taken that afternoon. "I think we'd better start heading home..."  
  
Joey jumped up out of his chair at these words.  
  
"Yo, Z!" he called over to the other side of the room, where a disgruntled Mr. Zaliki glanced up at the group.  
  
"I thank you to call me Z, and what is it, Wheeler?" he barked, coldly.  
  
Joey shrugged.  
  
"Well, we've got important thing to get to, so we gotta be heading out now," he said casually, picking up his backpack and heading toward the classroom door.  
  
Mr. Zaliki sighed and looked at his watch.  
  
"Fine, fine, the class was going to end in ten minutes anyway," he muttered, putting away his books and papers.  
  
"Yes!" Tristan muttered, grabbing his bag and knocking over his pieces accidentally.  
  
"See you guys!" Joey called, sprinting out the door, closely followed by Tristan.  
  
"Wait up!" Yugi called, running after them.  
  
  
  
Tea narrowed her eyes as the art room door slammed behind Yugi.  
  
"Those boys," she muttered, picking up a handful of pieces and putting them back in the box.  
  
"Yeah," Amber muttered nervously, throwing a board into the box as well as Bakura, Hanasaki, and Duke helped pick up the pieces. "And I've got to be back at the Black Crown by 5:00 to meet Pearl."  
  
Duke nodded, taking the box and putting it up on Mr. Zaliki's desk.  
  
"Thanks for the class!" he called, as Tea, Amber, and Bakura hurried out the door, closely followed by Duke, who accidentally pulled the light switch down with his backpack as he left the room, causing the lights to go out in the room.  
  
Mr. Zaliki narrowed his eyes in irritation as Hanasaki nervously picked up his backpack and walked over to the door slowly.  
  
"Those kids..." Mr. Zaliki muttered angrily, picking up his things as Hanasaki timidly flicked the light switch back up again.  
  
  
  
**********  
  
Meanwhile, Joey, Tristan, and Yugi were racing each other down the sidewalks, trying to see who could make it to the Black Crown first.  
  
"I'm winning!" Tristan called back to the others, who were lagging behind, turning his head around to see them. "Ha, ha!"  
  
Joey gritted his teeth angrily, trying to speed up and catch up with his friend as they all approached the Black Crown gaming store. Suddenly, Yugi gasped, seeing something large and yellow pull up right in Tristan's running path.  
  
"Tristan look out!" Yugi yelled, as a loud horn blew and Tristan turned to face forward again, only to come face to face with a yellow taxi, hurtling straight toward him.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 1  
  
^_^ What did you think?  
  
"Review and let us know! And next chapter will be up real soon!"  
  
  
  
Thanks for reading! ^_^ 


	2. Chapter 2: The Visitor

Chapter 2: The Visitor  
  
Notes: Thanks for reviewing, everyone. ^^ And Pearl will be slightly like Rebecca, though she'll mostly be annoying in a different way. But she's more than she appears to be, I'll tell you that, but It'll become clearer in later chapters.  
  
Oh, and yes, Priest Seto and Seto will play a big part in this story too. ^_^ How could they not? But anyway, I'm planning a rather interesting thing for them to do...^_~  
  
"Anyway, I guess we'll go on with Chapter 2 here!"  
  
***********  
  
Chapter 2: The Visitor  
  
As the taxi came flying toward Tristan, his eyes widened and he dove off to the side of the rode and into a patch of grass outside the Black Crown, putting large grass stains on both arms of his black coat.  
  
The taxi slowed to a stop as Yugi and Joey ran over to Tristan, looking quite shocked.  
  
"Are you alright, Tristan?" Yugi asked, holding out a hand to help his friend up.  
  
Tristan grasped Yugi's hand and pulled himself up, glaring over at the taxi-cab as the door flung open and a suitcase was shoved out, where is fell to the ground with a loud clunk.  
  
"Baka," Came a high-pitched voice and the three watched as a girl stepped out of the taxi.  
  
She had large brown eyes and long white hair and bangs. She was wearing a pale-blue T-shirt and jean shorts with pink hems, despite the fact it was the first week of November. Around her neck was a thin, silver chain, at the end of which was a single, white pearl.  
  
"Hai, hai!" she grumbled, handing over a few paper bills to the taxi driver as he held out his hand to her. "Arigato!"  
  
She waved with a big grin as the taxi drove away from the Black Crown, leaving the girl, and her large suitcase, on the side of the road, right in front of Yugi, Joey, and Tristan.  
  
"Er...is that Amber's cousin?" Yugi whispered to Joey, who shrugged.  
  
"She's got a pearl around her neck," he replied. "That's kinda saying "rob me" though, to be wearing something valuable like that around her neck."  
  
  
  
Tristan snorted with laughed as Pearl turned around and narrowed her brown eyes at them.  
  
"Nani okashii?(what's so funny?)" Pearl demanded, her mouth turned down in a small frown.  
  
Tristan abruptly stopped laughing and grinned in embarrassment. Joey sighed and let his arms sag down.  
  
"If this IS her cousin, I can totally see the family resemblance in their personalities," he muttered, remembered Amber's first reaction to the gang when she came to visit Duke.  
  
"Hush, Joey!" Yugi hissed, hoping that Joey hadn't further offended the girl.  
  
  
  
Pearl, however, was staring at them with a look of confusion over her face.  
  
"Huh?" she asked, then put her hand to her chin and began to think, grumbling something in English that the three couldn't make out.  
  
  
  
Yugi exchanged glances with Tristan and Joey as Duke ran up to them, out of breath, his backpack nearly falling down and off his shoulder as he bent down for a breath.  
  
"Hey guys," he panted, looking up at the others. "What's up?"  
  
His eyes landed on Pearl and he raised his eyebrows.  
  
"Is that...?" he started to ask, but was cut off and Pearl growled in annoyance.  
  
"Dangdrattit!" she yowled in English. "I forgot the stupid word for hello!"  
  
Duke grinned, and chuckled as he straightened his backpack.  
  
"You speak English," he said with a smile, causing Pearl to look up, hopefully.  
  
"Yes! I thought I'd have to be trying to understand everyone in Japanese this whole time!" Pearl sighed with relief, lugging her suitcase upright. "You do speak English, right?" she asked, as if to make sure.  
  
Duke laughed.  
  
"Yeah," he replied. "You must be Pearl."  
  
  
  
Yugi looked blankly at Tristan and Joey. He could only catch a few words of their conversation, those few being "English" and "Pearl." Joey shrugged in reply.  
  
"Yeah...so, can you tell me where the Black Crown or something store is?" Pearl asked, looking around as a few cars roared by.  
  
Duke pointed up at his Game Shop, grinning.  
  
"Right there," he replied, smiling. "It's my store. I'm Duke Devlin, the owner."  
  
Pearl's eyes widened as there came a huffing noise behind the group as Amber hurried up to them, grinning.  
  
"Pearl!" she cried, smiling at her cousin as she stopped short and adjusted her backpack. "When did you get here?"  
  
Peal grinned.  
  
"Just now," she replied cheerily. "The taxi driver was irritating..."  
  
Amber grinned as Tea walked up behind her and she noticed the others standing around.  
  
"Oh, guys, this is my cousin, Pearl," she introduced Pearl, switching back to Japanese.  
  
Yugi smiled.  
  
"Yeah, the pearl around her neck kinda gave her away," he chuckled, Pearl glancing up at Amber with a lost look on her face.  
  
"What're they saying?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
Duke shrugged.  
  
"That they figured out who you were by the pearl around your neck," he explained.  
  
"Are they your friends, Amber?" Pearl asked, pulling on Amber's arm slightly to get her attention.  
  
Amber nodded.  
  
"Yeah, this is Joey, Tristan, Tea, Duke, and Yugi," she said, pointing at them as she declared their names.  
  
Pearl nodded, glancing over at Duke with a dreamy expression on her face. Amber raised an eyebrow, but decided not to ask anything.  
  
"Anyway," Yugi continued, rather awkwardly. "Since it's Friday, Mai had invited us all to go eat at the Pizza Parlor and then go see a movie later this evening around 6:00. Are you guys going to come?"  
  
Amber nodded.  
  
"Sure, as long as it's okay for Pearl to come along," she replied happily.  
  
Tea nodded.  
  
"It's no problem at all," she said, turning to Pearl. "Hi, nice to meet you," Tea said in English to her.  
  
Pearl grinned.  
  
"Yay! More people who can speak English!" she cheered. "Nice to meet you too."  
  
Duke glanced down at his watch, then looked back up at the others.  
  
"Well, it's getting late, and if we want to make this movie tonight, we'd better get Pearl unpacked and stuff first," he said, looking over at his shop and house.  
  
Tristan nodded.  
  
"Yeah, and I gotta take my dog out," he realized, starting off down the street. "She hasn't been out since this morning. See you at the pizza place!"  
  
Joey waved as he hurried after Tristan.  
  
"Yeah, see you guys later," he called back as he and Tristan disappeared around the corner.  
  
Tea looked at Yugi and the others and shivered. Yugi noticed and smiled.  
  
"Do you want to just come over to the Game Shop until it's time to leave later?" he offered, hoping Tea would say yes.  
  
Tea smiled gratefully and nodded.  
  
  
  
"Sure!" she replied, rubbing her hands together. "Besides, your place is the closest to the pizza place."  
  
Yugi nodded and Yami watched in spirit form as Yugi and Tea walked off down the street, waving to Duke, Pearl, and Amber.  
  
"See you tonight!" Yugi called as he and Tea turned right and were soon out of sight.  
  
Pearl rubbed her arms furiously, her pearl pendant bouncing up and down as she did so.  
  
"Boy is it cold here," she muttered her teeth chattering.  
  
Duke grinned.  
  
"Yeah, so that's probably why we ought to go inside," Duke replied, walking up toward his shop. "Come on!"  
  
Amber nodded.  
  
"I hope you brought a sweater with you, Pearl," she chuckled as she took her cousin's hand and the two ran up to the house after Duke.  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Bakura was walking alone through the windy afternoon weather. In the confusion, Amber, Duke, and Tea had run ahead, leaving him the perfect opportunity to go off by himself.  
  
As he walked, Bakura suddenly felt a jiggle under his sweater and school uniform. After seeing that no one was watching, Bakura unbuttoned his jacket and pulled out his Millennium Ring, which was glowing madly and the pointers were all raised up and pointing in various directions.  
  
With a touch of the ring, Bakura's personality suddenly switched, and Yami Bakura became the controller of the shared body once again, and he blinked, looking down at his ring with suspicion.  
  
"How is it that the Millennium Ring is detecting so many magical properties?" he wondered, tracing the arrows. "Let's see...two pointers point toward the Game Shop; that must be Yugi's Millennium Items. One points left...I don't know what that could be sensing. Another points toward the other side of town, and the last points..."  
  
He glanced up at the building he was passing by and raised an eyebrow in curiosity.  
  
"To Kaiba Corporation?" Yami Bakura mused, looking through the glass doors that lead into the lobby of the bottom floor. "I wonder..."  
  
After taking another quick glance around, he put his sweater over the glowing ring and walked through the glass doors and into the building.  
  
**********  
  
Meanwhile, over at the Kaiba Manor, Mokuba had pulled out a stack of board games and other sorts of play items, and was sorting through them as Priest Seto watched.  
  
"Monopoly?" Mokuba inquired, holding up the game. "You try to buy different buildings and things and be the one with the most property at the end when everyone else is bankrupt."  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow, confused.  
  
"Er...I'm not quite sure I would understand that one," he replied gently, hoping he wouldn't disappoint the boy.  
  
Mokuba shrugged and put it back on the stack.  
  
"I don't think you could play Twister," he chuckled, tossing that game aside as well. "Aha! How about checkers? It's pretty easy to learn, and I can move your piece for you when you want to make a move, since you can't touch anything."  
  
Priest Seto glanced at the cover and nodded.  
  
"Sure," he replied, floating down toward the ground. "It looks simple enough," he added as Mokuba dumped out the black and red pieces and began setting them up on the board.  
  
Suddenly, Priest Seto sensed something strange; like the presence of something that shouldn't be around. Quickly, he looked up and glanced around. Mokuba, noticing the priest's sudden strange behavior, tilted his head.  
  
"Something wrong?" he asked and Priest Seto looked back at him again with a smile.  
  
"No, no...nothing..." he murmured, narrowing his eyes in though. "Let's play the game now."  
  
Mokuba grinned.  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
************  
  
Amber flicked on a light in the guest room opposite her own in Duke's house as Pearl walked inside, blinking.  
  
"Looks cool," she commented, plopping her suitcase down on the bed and pulling it open.  
  
Duke stepped back a little as Amber walked into the room.  
  
  
  
"I'm going to go see what's going on in the shop real quick," he said, winking at Amber.  
  
He was trying to find an excuse to let Amber catch up with her cousin alone. He waved as he walked out of the room and closed the door partway behind him.  
  
"See you!" Amber called after him, before turning back to Pearl, who was grinning mischievously.  
  
Amber raised an eyebrow.  
  
"What's with you, Pearl?" she asked curiously, smiling slightly.  
  
  
  
Pearl's grin grew wider.  
  
"So that's the Duke-guy you were telling me all about?" she inquired suddenly, catching Amber off-guard.  
  
Amber nodded, feeling slightly uneasy.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, that's him," she said quickly.  
  
"He's SUPER cute!" Pearl burst out, the dreamy look coming over her face again. "You're so lucky!"  
  
Amber could feel her cheeks burning a little as she was sure she was beginning to blush.  
  
"Um...yeah, he's really nice," Amber stammered, backing up a little.  
  
Since when had Pearl cared about cute boys? The last time she remembered being with her cousin, she'd been complaining about the boys in her class being bullies and jerks.  
  
  
  
Pearl's expression suddenly changed as a thought came to mind. At that same moment, Duke was walking past the door again, trying to get to the study on the other side, but he couldn't help but overhear the next comment Pearl made.  
  
"Ooh! Have you ever kissed him?" Pearl squealed looking eagerly over at Amber, whose face looked like she had just eaten a jalapeno pepper.  
  
"PEARL!" she cried indignantly as Duke chuckled quietly to himself outside and continued walking toward the study.  
  
"You HAVE! You have!" Pearl cried happily, bouncing around.  
  
Amber hurried over to her cousin and grabbed her hand.  
  
"Okay, enough about Duke," she said with a very forced grin. "What have you been doing lately? And how do you like your pendant?"  
  
The girlish grin did not fade from Pearl's face as Amber let go of her hand once again.  
  
"Oh...I've been good," she muttered with a grin. "And I love my pearl," she added, picking up the small white bead and admiring it. "It's like a mini-snowball."  
  
Amber smiled, admiring her own amber pendant.  
  
"Well, I'm glad you like it," she replied, turning toward the door. "I guess you'll have to unpack your things later," she said, glancing down at her watch. "We've got to get going if we're going to make it to pizza place on time."  
  
Duke grinned as he walked toward Amber and Pearl, who had both walked out of the guestroom.  
  
"My thoughts exactly," he agreed. "Let's get going!"  
  
************  
  
Outside a small wood cabin the forest, a few miles from Domino, a boy walked out and peered through the thick of trees, grinning as he sucked in the fall air.  
  
"Ah...I sense the powers nearby," The boy muttered, pushing back his gold-rimmed glasses and glancing down at a golden medallion that hung around his neck. "And I've almost obtained enough power to achieve my first goal..."  
  
He grinned in a satisfied manner as he looked out at the setting sun.  
  
"Yes...my first objective..."  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 2  
  
^_^ Please review and let us know what you think so far.  
  
"Yeah! And next chapter up soon!" 


	3. Chapter 3: Horror and Pizza

Chapter 3: Horror and Pizza  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for the reviews guys. To answer some of your questions: Firstly? **shrug* I could see him saying it, but that's just me. ^_^;  
  
"It seems like there are some mixed feelings about Pearl. O_O Some like her, some think she's annoying, and some think she's funny. XD"  
  
"And a little note to this chapter, Juan is someone who works in the pizza place, and was only ever seen before in my mini-story, "Dances, Thieves, and Flowers."  
  
Anyway, I guess we should continue now. ^_~  
  
************  
  
Chapter 3: Horror and Pizza  
  
Yami Bakura walked calmly through the busy lobby of Kaiba Corporation, holding his sweater over the Millennium Ring so that no one would become suspicious of him. He peeked underneath the sweater, however, to see the glowing arrow and follow it.  
  
The glowing and quivering arrow soon led him to the elevator, where Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Hm..." he muttered, pushing the button, and the doors flung open.  
  
Carefully, he walked inside and shut the doors, despite the fact that a man with a cleaning cart was a few feet away, and looked as though he wanted to use the elevator as well.  
  
Holding out his ring, the glowing pointers wavered for a moment before pointing straight at the button for the highest floor on the building.  
  
"Very well then, up we go," Yami Bakura chuckled to himself, pressing the button down and feeling the elevator jerk underneath him as it began to rise. "Whoever or whatever is up there is about to receive an unexpected visit, from me."  
  
************  
  
Yugi was fishing through his extra cards while lying on his stomach across his bed. Tea was sitting in his desk chair, leaning over the back rest and holding her deck in hand.  
  
"I know I had that fairy monster in here somewhere..." Yugi muttered, going through his cards. "It'd really go perfect in your deck, Tea."  
  
Tea smiled a half-smile at Yugi, looking at the top card of her deck, Dark Magician Girl.  
  
"Well, at least I've got some strong monsters," she commented, looking through her deck quickly. "It doesn't really matter right now anyway, because I'm not going to be dueling for a while."  
  
Yugi grinned as he located the card he'd been looking for, and held it up for Tea to take.  
  
"You never know when you'll have to duel, Tea," he reminded her, looking down at his own faithful deck as Tea took the card and looked at it.  
  
"What does a Dream Sprite do?" she inquired, looking at the picture of the girl.  
  
Yugi chuckled.  
  
"Her effect can really be handy when you have a monster with a strong attack or defense on the field," he told her. "It can..."  
  
He trailed off as his eyes landed on the clock over on the desk. He gasped as he realized what time it was.  
  
"Oh no!" he cried, leaping off the bed and causing all the cards that had been resting there to bounce up and down as the mattress tried to settle down again. "We've only got a few minutes to get over to the pizza place!"  
  
Tea stuffed her deck, and the Dream Sprite, into her purse and the two ran downstairs and out the door, without even bothering to take their coats and sweater.  
  
Grandpa peered out from the kitchen, where he'd been getting his own dinner.  
  
"Yugi? Tea?" he asked, blinking in confusion. "I guess they already left," he deducted with a shrug. "Oh well."  
  
***********  
  
Meanwhile, at the pizza parlor, Joey, Mai, and Tristan were already seated, Joey flipping eagerly through the menu and Tristan leaning over the booth to adjust the jukebox that was placed right behind them.  
  
Mai was merely glancing down at her newly-painted nails, wondering what was taking the others so long.  
  
"Are you waiting for someone else, Miss Mai, or are you ready to order?" Came a smooth voice, and Mai glanced up to see a waiter standing next to the booth, holding a pad of paper and a pen.  
  
He smiled at Mai, who smirked back.  
  
"No, we're waiting for the rest of the gang to get here," she sighed, glancing down at her watch, which read 6:14.  
  
She frowned.  
  
"They're about fifteen minutes later already, though," she grumbled, adjusting her purse on her shoulder.  
  
  
  
Juan smiled back at her, causing Joey to frown disapprovingly.  
  
"I can't stand this Juan-guy," Joey thought to himself, looking down at the menu, as if the tossed salad was as interesting as an adventure novel. "He's always just out to impress Mai..."  
  
"Might I suggest an appetizer for you and your little friends here?" Juan asked, taking Joey's menu away from him, causing the blonde-haired boy to frown even more.  
  
"Hey!" he cried, but Mai was already looking down at the breadstick selection that Juan was pointing down at.  
  
"We have handmade breadsticks covered in either cheese or garlic, or both," Juan said to Mai in his most appetizing voice.  
  
  
  
Tristan sighed in delight.  
  
"Man, I'm starting to get hungry..." he muttered with a grin, leaning over Mai's shoulder to see the menu closer. "Let's get them!"  
  
Mai shrugged, still smiling, however as she leaned back in the booth's soft seat.  
  
"Well, I guess we'll take them then," she sighed, Juan scribbling down the order in his notepad.  
  
"They will be with you momentarily, ma'am," he assured Mai as he hurried away back behind the counter up front and into the kitchens.  
  
Mai was still looking over the menu for a few moments until she noticed Joey's sour face and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"What's with you, Joey?" she asked curiously. "You look like you just ate a lemon."  
  
Tristan burst out laughing as Joey grumbled under his breath.  
  
"VERRY funny, Mai," Joey grumbled, crossing his arms.  
  
Mai was about to restate her question when Duke, Amber, and Pearl walked up to the table, Amber pulling off her sweater and Pearl shivering.  
  
"Man, I didn't think I'd need a sweater," she grumbled, scooting into the booth next to Joey, causing him to move around the rounded table and next to Mai on the other side, something which didn't bother him a bit.  
  
Duke chuckled.  
  
"Where did you think you were going? Hawaii?" he joked as Amber slid in next to Pearl, and Duke next to her.  
  
Pearl laughed.  
  
"No," she replied in her childish voice. "I just didn't think it'd be very cold here."  
  
Amber grinned and poked her cousin playfully.  
  
"Well guess again, Pearl," she chuckled as Juan returned with a steaming plate of breadsticks.  
  
Joey, despite himself, felt his mouth watering as the tray was set down in the middle of the table by Juan, the garlic aroma rising from the freshly baked breadsticks.  
  
"I see your other friends have arrived, Miss Mai," he observed, looking at Pearl, Amber, and Duke. "I will be back in a moment to take your order."  
  
Mai grinned.  
  
"Sure thing," she replied as took one of the breadsticks from the tray back to his plate.  
  
***********  
  
"I'll move my side piece over here," Priest Seto informed Mokuba, pointing down at the checker he was indicating and tracing the path he wanted it to move with his almost transparent finger.  
  
"Sure thing," Mokuba replied gleefully, having set the priest up for a trap.  
  
The two had played through a few games of checkers already, and Priest Seto was just starting to understand the rules of the game well enough to be a challenge to Mokuba.  
  
"Gotcha!" Mokuba said triumphantly, capturing two of his opponent's pieces and promoting his checker to a king as he reached the other side of the board.  
  
Priest Seto groaned.  
  
"Not again," he muttered, amazed at his four straight losses to the boy. "It looks as though I will lose this game as well."  
  
Mokuba smiled as he looked up at the priest.  
  
"It just takes some practice," he assured him. "Then you'll get to be good at the game."  
  
Priest Seto smiled, for once, enjoying himself.  
  
"Another game then?" he inquired, grinning at Mokuba, who nodded eagerly.  
  
"Yeah!" he agreed, starting to collect the pieces again when the clock chimed gently, announcing the half hour.  
  
He frowned up at the clock, and sighed.  
  
"I hope my brother gets home soon," he muttered, setting up the pieces again on the board. "I hate having him out so late like this. I'm always afraid something bad will happen to him..."  
  
Mokuba stopped short and smiled back up at Priest Seto. He didn't want to ruin their fun, and besides, he thought. Seto would be fine. It was just Kaiba Corporation after all.  
  
"Anyway, you want to go first this time?" Mokuba asked, brushing a bit of fluff off of the board.  
  
Priest Seto nodded, though felt slightly awkward again. Modern Mokuba worried about his reincarnate just as the past Mokuba had worried about him. Hopefully, though, nothing like what happened long ago would happen again.  
  
"I move my middle checker there," Priest Seto announced, pointing down at the pieces again, and before long, the two were already deeply absorbed in their game again.  
  
************  
  
Seto sighed as he filed the last bit of paperwork into its proper folder in the gray filing cabinet that sat beside his desk against the wall and he leaned back in his chair, tired.  
  
"Thank goodness I only have to do that once a month," he muttered to himself, when a small creaking noise, like a door opening, caused him to become alert again, and he bolted up from the chair, and glanced around.  
  
"Hm..." he muttered suspiciously, but everything appeared to be in its place.  
  
He walked over to his briefcase and was about to pick it up when realized he hadn't locked it yet, and a few things that had been stored inside fell out, his deck, a pen, and a long and thin golden rod with a rounded top with the eye of Horus on it.  
  
It was the Millennium Rod, he sighed, picking it up. He had accidentally stumbled upon it during the Halloween party of Duke's when Yami Taerro had been attacking everyone.  
  
He'd meant to only use it as it appeared to be, a rod, as a means of defense. But Yugi, after overhearing a conversation between Seto and Priest Seto, had insisted on Seto keeping care of the rod for him.  
  
Keeping care, Seto hoped, was only keeping it around, and not using it, as Priest Seto kept insisting that one day, he must. Carefully, he put his prized deck, and the rod, back into his metal briefcase along with the pen, and shut the lid down, locking the sides tightly this time.  
  
***********  
  
Just outside Seto Kaiba's office, Yami Bakura slowly and carefully closed the door, and hurried down the hallway, not wanting to be seen anywhere near the office when the CEO of the company emerged.  
  
"Seto Kaiba had the Millennium Rod?" he asked himself, opening the door to the stairwell and hurrying down the stairs.  
  
Most likely, Seto was not going to be using the stairwell this late when he could get downstairs by the elevator in no time at all, so the white-haired boy considered himself safe.  
  
"But why would that foolish Yugi have given an item of that power to his dueling rival?" he pondered, stuffing the ring back under his school coat and slipping the pale blue sweater on overtop again as he reached a door to the next level.  
  
Now it was safe to take an elevator, he though to himself, hoping that Seto hadn't stalled in getting out of the building. But it didn't matter anymore anyway. He could just make up some excuse as to why he was in the building.  
  
As he walked through the door and into the busy hallway, he grinned to himself, pleased with this unexpected turn of events.  
  
"Obviously a mere mortal living the present times cannot understand the power of the Millennium Rod, and therefore will LOSE that item to me," he chuckled, disappearing into the crowd.  
  
************  
  
"So...what should we order?" Amber asked, lightly tracing crease marks on the table with her finger. "And has anyone seen Yugi and Tea?"  
  
  
  
"Yeah..." Came a new voice, panting and gasping for breath.  
  
Everyone looked up suddenly to see Yugi and Tea, pink-cheeked from the cold wind and panting leaning on the table. Joey's face lit up when he saw his friend.  
  
"Yugi!" he cried, pulling Yugi into the spot next to Duke.  
  
Tea slipped in next to Yugi, filling up the remaining seats in the booth.  
  
"Where've you been, pal?" he asked, leaning over Duke, Amber, and Pearl to talk to Yugi.  
  
"Baka," Pearl hissed, Amber giving her a stern look.  
  
Duke shoved Joey back into his seat with an evil smile.  
  
"All right, that's enough, Joey," he said cheerfully. "So...about what to order? How about three large pizzas?"  
  
"Eh, with everything on top!" Joey added quickly, glancing down at the toppings menu.  
  
Mai groaned, reading some of the choices.  
  
"Pineapple?!" she read with disgust. "Forget it, Joey, we're getting at LEAST one plain cheese pizza."  
  
Tea nodded in agreement.  
  
"Yeah, I hate all those weird meat toppings like bacon and hamburger," she said shuddering at the thought to those two combined with pizza.  
  
"What's wrong with a little hamburger?!" Joey demanded, looking offended.  
  
"Nothing, as long as it's not on my pizza!" Tea shot back.  
  
"They make kind of a cute couple, don't they?" Pearl observed, looking from Joey, to Tea, both of whom were looking daggers at the other.  
  
Amber squeezed Pearl's shoulder as Tea's eyes widened and she looked horrified.  
  
"Me and Joey?!" she cried. "N...no way!" she stammered, sitting back down in her seat, turning red with both anger and embarrassment.  
  
Pearl shrugged win a know-it-all way.  
  
"Well, they do say opposites attract," she informed Tea, glancing up at Duke hopefully.  
  
Duke, however, wasn't paying any attention. He was looking down at the menu and reading off the types of crust. With a sigh, Pearl looked down at the red seat of the booth.  
  
Joey looked clueless. He blinked, scratching his head, as Juan came back over to the table.  
  
"Huh? What'd she say?" he asked, looking down at Pearl who whistled innocently.  
  
Tea turned to look at Juan and didn't reply.  
  
"How embarrassing!" she thought to herself, as Juan pulled out his notepad.  
  
"Are we all ready to order now, Miss Mai?" he asked kindly, his pen upright and ready to take notes.  
  
Mai smiled.  
  
"Yeah, Juan," she said, looking down at the menu. "We'll have..."  
  
But Mai was cut off, however, from finishing her sentence as Pearl suddenly let out an ear-piercing shriek that sounded through the entire restaurant.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 3  
  
^_^ Oo, interesting ending. What's scaring Pearl? Review to find out!  
  
"Yep! Please review, and next chapter up soon!" 


	4. Chapter 4: Spiders and Spooks

Chapter 4: Spiders, Spying, and Spooks, Oh My!  
  
Notes: Thanks for the reviews, everyone!  
  
"Here comes Chapter 4!"  
  
**********  
  
Chapter 4: Spiders, Spying, and Spooks, Oh My!  
  
Across the desert sands of Egypt, and in the heart of the temple of the gods, Bastet, cat goddess bringing good fortune to the people of Egypt, paced back and forth, her eyes closed in silent meditation.  
  
Thoth, the ibis-headed god was sitting down and leaning against the wall, his eyes also closed in meditation. He was waiting for a moment to ask Bastet a question, however, he felt he owed something to her since she rescued him from Anubis's spell a week before, and since the cat-goddess preferred silence, he let her have it.  
  
"It has been a full week since I've seen Anubis, Thoth," Bastet said softly aloud, causing Thoth to open his eyes and gaze over at her in mild interest.  
  
"And?" he inquired.  
  
Bastet flicked her tail.  
  
  
  
"Most gods learn their lesson and stay in their place after such defeats as Anubis has suffered at the hands of his peers, but Anubis is not that way," she informed Thoth.  
  
Thoth nodded.  
  
"Anubis is a stubborn god," he said wisely. "But from what you told me, you and the mortals of Domino defeated his entire jackal-warrior army. What other means does he have to attack us with?"  
  
Bastet scrunched her nose up in thought, looking quit unsettled.  
  
"Anubis is knowledgeable in many fields of ancient magic, having spent 3000 years dealing with the magical arts while doing his duty," she pointed out. "His sense of magic is quite fine, and I believe that any strong force will attract him, and he will seek to possess it himself."  
  
Thoth blinked.  
  
"You certainly have this well thought out, Bastet," he complimented his friend. "But tell me, how do we prevent our fellow god from tracking these things? Even we do not have the power to cancel out one another's inborn abilities."  
  
Bastet nodded and closed her eyes.  
  
"That is why we must keep a close eye on Anubis," she said solemnly. "So soon after a last battle is when most enemies have their guard down, and when Anubis will strike, hoping to have an edge over his battle-weary and victory-gleeful opponents. He thinks like this."  
  
Thoth nodded in agreement.  
  
************  
  
Everyone at the table jumped as Pearl suddenly shrieked in terror, and Juan dropped his pad and pen on the table. A waitress carrying a pitcher of Pepsi stumbled and dropped the entire thing to the floor, where it spread over the carpet.  
  
A group of rough teenagers turned their heads in annoyance to see what the commotion was about as Pearl scooted over toward her cousin.  
  
  
  
"What is it Pearl?!" Amber cried, looking down at her cousin who was shakily pointing toward the seat of their booth.  
  
"I...it's a spider!" Pearl screamed, nearly in Amber's lap now as Duke looked down at the small, black spider that was crawling on the seat.  
  
"Oh, it's ONLY a spider, Pearl," Duke laughed, carefully taking his napkin and squishing the spider, as Pearl squeezed her eyes shut.  
  
Joey gaped at Pearl as she slowly moved back toward her own spot on the booth's seats, as Juan picked up his things again. The group of teens were laughing as they went back to their dinner, and the waitress looked quite embarrassed to have dropped the whole pitcher on the floor.  
  
"You screamed THAT loud because of a SPIDER?!" Joey cried, causing Pearl to look up at him with her huge, watery brown eyes.  
  
"I'm really scared of spiders," Pearl muttered, in reply to Duke, looking down at the table, her cheeks turning pink. "They're creepy."  
  
"What'd she sa..." Joey started to ask but Amber cut him off with a hiss of annoyance.  
  
"She said she's really afraid of spiders, Joey," Amber snapped.  
  
Joey rolled his eyes as he turned back to Juan.  
  
"Yeah, we'll have one large with everything, one large with pepperoni, and one large with extra cheese," he said quickly, taking another breadstick off the tray.  
  
Yugi tore his eyes away from Pearl, who was still staring at her lap, her cheeks beet red, and smiled up at Juan.  
  
"Yes," he agreed, as Tea nodded as well.  
  
Juan scribbled down the order, still looking suspiciously over at Pearl, and then pocketed his pad and pen.  
  
  
  
"I'll take the napkin, and I'm sorry it frightened the little girl," Juan apologized, taking the folded up napkin from Duke and Mai sighed.  
  
"It's not your fault, Juan," she assured the waiter, then sunk back in her seat as Juan hurried back toward the kitchens.  
  
"I can't believe that Pearl screamed just because of a spider," Joey muttered, chewing on his breadstick.  
  
Amber glared at him.  
  
"Joey just let it be," she hissed, even though she was embarrassed as well.  
  
Why did Pearl have to scream so loudly?  
  
"It's not anything to get angry about," Tea reminded Joey, though inwardly she was still irritated about Pearl's comment regarding her and Joey.  
  
Pearl, however, was staring down at the table, her cheeks bright red as she caught bits and pieces of the conversations that were buzzing around all around her.  
  
"Why do they pick on me?" she thought to herself, angrily, as she heard her name spoken by one of Amber's friends. "Why?"  
  
Angry, she clenched her fists and closed her eyes. The pearl around her neck, however, moved and suddenly gave off a slight glow. With her eyes closed, Pearl didn't notice this strange behavior.  
  
Yami, however, appeared in spirit form and stared at the slightly glowing pearl.  
  
"Some sort of strong energy is pulsing from that pearl..." he muttered to himself, his eyes wide in surprise.  
  
A moment later, though, the pearl abruptly stopped glowing as Joey let out a cry. Pearl's eyes snapped open and she looked over at Joey who appeared to be trying to put down his cup.  
  
"I can't get it off me!" he cried, shaking the glass up and down, as if it were attached to his hand. "It's stuck to my hand!"  
  
Tea winced as soda from the glass spilled onto her lap, staining her skirt with brown.  
  
"Joey!" she shrieked in annoyance.  
  
"Stop shaking it around and we'll help you, man!" Tristan yelled, standing up, looking quite confused.  
  
"But it's like frozen to my hand!" Joey whined, looking horrified. "My hand's going numb!"  
  
Yugi's eyes grew wide as he hurried around to the other side of the booth to help Joey.  
  
"Just stay calm Joey, and let us see," he said in a reassuring voice as Joey lowered the glass and his hand down to let Yugi and Joey examine it.  
  
Yami, however, was still staring at Pearl, who was looking just as puzzle as everyone else. The glowing in the pearl around her neck had ceased, and she was merely asking Amber what was going on.  
  
"What had that light been, and what was that energy I had sensed?" Yami asked himself, as Yugi and the others gathered around Joey.  
  
"Whoa!" Tristan gasped, trying to touch Joey's hand but finding it covered in a thin sheet of what seemed to be ice. "It's like your hand IS frozen to the cup!"  
  
"Told you!" Joey yelled, his voice quivering. "Just get it off me!"  
  
  
  
Amber raised an eyebrow.  
  
"How can the glass be FROZEN to your hand?" she asked in disbelief, as she leaned over to see for herself.  
  
"Maybe...the water on the glass condensed and then froze over Joey's hand?" Duke guessed with a shrug. "It's all weird no matter what happened."  
  
"I don't care how it got there just GET IT OFF!" Joey practically yelled in Tristan's ear.  
  
A waitress rushed over to the table, her eyes wide as she leaned over the group huddled around Joey as Tristan began pulling on Joey's hand, trying to make it detach from the glass.  
  
"What is going on here?!" The waitress cried, seeing Tristan pulling on Joey.  
  
"My hand's frozen to my glass!" Joey muttered in embarrassment.  
  
Yugi could here the teens across the room laughing hysterically and cringed. He felt bad for his friend, but at the same time, wondered how it was possible for Joey's hand to just freeze to the glass like that.  
  
"Yugi...I think this isn't an ordinary event," Yami said solemnly from where he was still watching Pearl, turning to face his partner as he spoke.  
  
Yugi's eyes widened.  
  
"What do you mean, not ordinary?" Yugi asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
************  
  
Seto sighed as he walked up the stairs to Kaiba Manor, his briefcase in his right hand. He opened the door to his house and walked inside, out of the chilly November air, and into the warmth of the home.  
  
He walked slowly up the stairs and to the second floor, where he put his briefcase down on his neatly made bed, and was about to turn on his computer, when he heard a giggle from down the hall.  
  
Curious, he followed the noise to Mokuba's bedroom, where he was playing a game of checkers against Priest Seto. Seto gave a thin smile.  
  
"Hm, who's winning?" he said aloud, causing Mokuba to look up in surprise, his eyes lighting up.  
  
"Niisama!" Mokuba cried, running over to Seto and hugging him tightly. "I'm glad you're home!"  
  
Seto smiled.  
  
"Me too..." he muttered. "I could do without paperwork for a long, long time."  
  
Priest Seto chuckled as he watched the two.   
  
"So niisama, wanna play checkers with me now?" Mokuba asked with a grin.  
  
Seto, looking down into Mokuba's large and watery eyes, couldn't refuse.  
  
"All right, a quick game," he replied, causing Mokuba's grin to widen.  
  
"All right!" he cheered.  
  
**********  
  
"Oh...ow...ow...OW," Joey groaned as he held his hand and attached cup over the sink in the back of the restaurant, Tristan and Yugi next to him. "I think my hand has completely lost all feeling."  
  
Tristan sighed.  
  
"Maybe that's a good thing then," he muttered. "Then maybe you'll quit whining."  
  
Yugi smiled a nervous smile.  
  
"Come on, Tristan," he put in gently in Joey's defense. "You wouldn't like your glass frozen to your hand either."  
  
"Yeah!" Joey growled, letting the ice holding his hand captive drip over the sink.  
  
Tristan just sighed again and rolled his eyes as the waitress walked back over carrying a steaming pitcher of warm water, and began to pour it over Joey's frozen hand in an attempt to melt the ice.  
  
"I just don't understand how this could happen," The waitress murmured as the ice began to crack under the warmth of the water. "But it doesn't matter I suppose, as this warm water ought to melt the ice away."  
  
A few minutes later, the ice casing cracked and Joey's hand was freed from the frozen prison, the glass clanking as it hit the bottom of the sink. Joey lifted his hand up and gently moved his fingers around.  
  
"I think they're all still here...although I can't feel any of them..." he muttered, the waitress collecting his glass.  
  
"If you return to your seats now, your pizza should be ready," she told them, getting another glass from the rack. "And we'll be with you with another drink in a few moments."  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"Thank you for your help," he said politely, Joey still grumbling under his breath as he tried to bring the feeling back to his fingers.  
  
  
  
The three walked back to the table and took their seats again, everyone staring at Joey.  
  
"Man, this place stinks," he muttered, rubbing his hand. "First spiders, then my hand gets stuck to my glass."  
  
Tristan nodded.  
  
"It's really weird all right," he muttered. "And remember the last time we came here? A pitcher of water spilled on your deck, Joey!"  
  
Joey's eyes lit up.  
  
"Oh yeah!" he cried, remembering the incident very clearly.   
  
Amber laughed at their antics, but decided to join in.  
  
"The only time I came here was when I was on a...when I was waiting for Duke on night," she replied, quickly avoiding mentioning it had been a date. "He never showed up."  
  
Duke blushed, remembering how he'd been stuck in an elevator and couldn't get out in time to make the date.  
  
"This place is jinxed or something," Joey declared, smacking his non-frozen hand on the table, causing the drinks to bounce up.  
  
Mai rolled her eyes.  
  
"You guys," she muttered, shaking her head with a sigh as Juan came by with a large tray and three pizzas.  
  
"I am sorry for the inconveniences, Miss Mai," he apologized, setting the steaming pans down on the table, everyone's eyes lighting up. "Here are your orders and Mr. Wheeler's drink."  
  
Joey accepted his drink and Mai smiled at Juan apologetically.  
  
"I'm sorry we've been such a nuisance," she replied with a heavy sigh. "Thanks for the pizzas though. They look great."  
  
"Anytime, Miss Mai," Juan replied with a smile, walking away.  
  
Joey scowled.  
  
"Anytime, Miss Mai," he repeated under his breath. "What a loser."  
  
"I want a cheese slice!" Pearl declared cheerily, her embarrassment about the scream quickly fading away.  
  
Besides, she thought, screaming at a spider wasn't as bad as getting your own hand frozen to your glass.  
  
"I'll take an everything," Tristan called.  
  
"Hurry up, Tea!"  
  
"I'm going as fast as I can Joey! This stuff is hot..."  
  
As the gang chose their slices of pizza and dug into the meal, Yugi kept feeling a nagging in his mind that he was ignoring something, and the words Yami had said before the meal, "This is not an ordinary event," lingered in his mind.  
  
Had someone nearby used some sort of power to do that to Joey, or was it really just a freak accident?  
  
Yugi sighed with uneasiness as he bit into a slice of pizza, trying to push the thoughts out of his mind. However hard he tried, though, he couldn't help but feel something wasn't quite right.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 4  
  
Please review!  
  
"Yep, and then we'll get the next chapter up soon!"  
  
Thanks for reading! ^_^ 


	5. Chapter 5: Air and Ice

Chapter 5: Air and Ice  
  
Notes: Thanks for reviewing, guys. ^_^ And what's up with Pearl? Well, more will be explained this chapter.  
  
"Yep! And here's Chapter 5."  
  
**********  
  
Chapter 5: Air and Ice  
  
Deep in the heart of the temple of Anubis in Egypt, the jackal-headed deity was seated in a stone chair in his embalming room, stewing over his most recent defeat.  
  
"Those mortal nuisances..." he grumbled, his eyes closed tightly, his eyebrows knitted in anger. "Bastet, and Thoth...they all ruin my plans...GRRAA!"  
  
He shot up and lashed out at a stone statue that had been resting on a table, causing it to break in half and clatter to the ground, shattering into hundreds of tiny stone shards.  
  
Taking in deep breaths, he clenched his clawed hands, trying to think of another idea, but with anger and hatred toward the people who he despised and prevented him from ever succeeding clouding his mind, he found it hard to think clearly.  
  
Suddenly, a strange noise came to his ears, causing them to perk up. That noise was quite familiar...It was the noise that he heard when he was sensing a strong form of magic.  
  
Turning his head toward the hallway, he sniffed.  
  
"Strong magical energies have emerged?" he pondered, stalking into the next room where his greenish-black pool of magic was.  
  
He bent over it and tossed in a pinch of white powder, causing the thick waters to ripple and spin. Images flashed over it, images of possessors of great power that he already new of...  
  
The seven Millennium Items flashed by, his fellow gods and goddesses, a strange boy with a golden medallion, and...  
  
The rippling stopped and fixated on a scene in what looked like a modern mortal eating area. He growled in anger as he noticed Yugi, one of the mortals who had stopped him before, sitting at the table, laughing with his friends.  
  
The picture in the water suddenly focused in on a small, white-haired girl who was sitting at the table, smiling as she laughed with the others. Anubis raised an eyebrow as he pondered what the girl could have that was so powerful...  
  
The picture, however, answered his question as it went further in focusing until it had stopped at a shot of a single, white pearl that hung around the girl's neck. It glimmered in the artificial light from the booth...or was it the light at all?  
  
Narrowing his white eyes, he studied the picture closely.  
  
  
  
"If that child possesses great power, there is the obvious possibility that she is unaware of it..." he muttered to himself, the picture fading a bit. "And if she is unaware...that gives me the chance to rob her of it."  
  
Grinning gleefully as the picture left the pool, Anubis turned around and walked toward the door.  
  
"It seems I am not out of options yet..." he murmured as he left the room.  
  
************  
  
"Ah...I'm stuffed," Joey sighed with contentment as he leaned back in the booth, rubbing his full stomach.  
  
Tristan grinned.  
  
"And your hand is obviously recovered," he added, pointing down at it.  
  
Joey nodded.  
  
"Yeah, good thing too, or else I'd probably sue this place," he muttered. "They ought to call it the Black Cat Pizza or something."  
  
Tea rolled her eyes.  
  
"Joey, you couldn't sue the place for your little accident, and besides," she reminded him, looking around. "This place isn't full of "bad luck." That's all just superstitious."  
  
Joey frowned.  
  
"Every time Bastet shows up something bad happens," he informed Tea, as Mai stretched and stood up. "And she's a black cat."  
  
Tea sighed, realizing there was no way to dissuade Joey.  
  
"That's different," she muttered, as Yugi got out of his seat, she following after him.  
  
Pearl scooting out after Duke, looking quite energetic.  
  
"So are we going to that movie now, Duke?" she asked, looking up at Duke and her cousin, both of whom were walking toward the door.  
  
Amber turned around a smiled a half-smile.  
  
"Yeah, I guess so," she replied, looking around at the others. "That is, if everyone still wants to."  
  
Tea nodded.  
  
"Yeah," she agreed. "I still want to go see the movie. What about you guys?" she asked, turning to Joey, Tristan, and Mai.  
  
Mai nodded.  
  
"Oh yeah, I'm definitely in the mood for a movie," she agreed.  
  
Pearl grinned mischievously.  
  
"Is it a romance picture?" she asked Tea, who raised an eyebrow.  
  
"No...why?" Tea replied, feeling slightly uneasy.  
  
Pearl shrugged.  
  
"Just though it would be an appropriate movie for the present times..." she began but Amber, turning red with embarrassment again, grabbed Pearl's hand.  
  
"Let's get going then, shall we?" Amber asked brightly. "We don't want to miss the beginning or anything."  
  
Duke nodded, walking toward the door.  
  
"Yeah," he agreed.  
  
Mai pulled out her purse and walked up to the counter.  
  
"I'm going to pay for the meal, and you guys can go to the theater. It's across the street," she explained, putting her purse down on the front desk and fishing through it.  
  
Tea frowned, feeling bad about Mai having to pay for everything.  
  
"Are you sure you don't mind?" she inquired as the blonde-haired woman pulled out a purple pen. "Paying for the dinner, I mean? I could..."  
  
Mai smiled and put up a hand, as if to stop Tea.  
  
"That's sweet hon, but this was my treat," Mai replied, looking over at Tristan and Joey, both of whom were arguing over by the jukebox.   
  
She sighed, narrowing her eyes.  
  
"At least it was trying to be," she added loudly, grinning as she shook her head. "Those two are impossible."  
  
Tea grinned.  
  
"I know what you mean," she replied, staring at the two as they began shoving each other out of the way.  
  
"But you need guys like them around," Mai admitted softly, before clearing her throat. "Anyway, I'll meet you over at the theater."  
  
Amber grinned with a thumbs-up.  
  
"Sure thing," she replied, putting her coat back on and opening the door to the restaurant.  
  
"See you in a bit, Mai," Yugi called, walking out after Amber, Pearl, and Duke. "Come on Joey, Tristan! We're leaving!" he called back to the two arguing boys.  
  
Both looked up and immediately ran toward the door.  
  
"Wait for us!" Joey called as they hurried out the door, letting it slam shut behind them, the little bell on top jingling.  
  
The waitress at the counter sighed with relief as Mai counted out her bills, smiling softly.  
  
"Those goof-balls," she muttered, taking her change and putting it back in her purse.  
  
***********  
  
Over at Kaiba Manor, Seto sighed as he walked out of Mokuba's room, turning out the light and closing the door behind him. The two had played several games of checkers, Priest Seto watching the games, and then decided to watch a video.  
  
  
  
Now, Seto was walked back to his room, ready for bed himself. Slowly, he opened the door to his room and narrowed his eyes, realizing there was a gold light outside in his yard, visible from the window.  
  
  
  
Quickly, he ran over to the window and gazed out into the night, watching the glowing gold light run across the front lawn. As the light reached the gates, he noticed from the lights on the columns that held the gates in place that it was a boy of some sort in his yard.  
  
  
  
The boy climbed agilely over the gates and dropped down on the other side, running away down the sidewalks.  
  
"That was certainly odd," Priest Seto commented, floating up through the window. "I sensed someone nearby, and it turned out that there was a boy with great power in your yard."  
  
Seto huffed.  
  
"What sort of boy?" he inquired, only acting half-interested as he opened his drawer and attempted to find his blue pajamas.  
  
Priest Seto folded his arms across his deep blue shirt and narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Taerro," he replied darkly. "Still possessed by the man with the Vampire Lord Ka."  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes as he vaguely debated whether or not he ought to get dressed in his room or somewhere where Priest Seto was not. Deciding it didn't matter, he shrugged as he took off his jacket and put it over on his bed.  
  
"The Vampire Lord ka...which is only defeated by the Millennium Rod, as I recall you said before," Seto replied, pulling on his pajama top.  
  
Priest Seto nodded.  
  
"That is true. That is the way we were able to defeat it in the past," he explained. "The Millennium Rod had the ability to seal away or store ka in stone tablets for use later, like your...Duel Monsters. By becoming part ka, he made himself vulnerable to that ability, allowing me to seal him away."  
  
Seto nodded, although he hated admitting he believed in that sort of thing.  
  
"Unfortunately, that Taerro boy broke the tablet the man's spirit was sealed him, allowing him to return..." he muttered, looking up at Seto seriously. "We must stop him before it is too late. YOU must stop him."  
  
Seto sighed, pulling back the covers of his bed and climbing into them.  
  
"Whatever that spirit can do, I'm sure it can wait," he muttered, hoping the priest would stop insisting upon his using the Millennium Rod. "Besides, I'm not going around and chasing that boy when he's not even doing anything wrong."  
  
Priest Seto sighed, but decided taking action right then was a bad idea anyhow. Seto turned off his lights and pulled the covers up over his shoulders.  
  
"Night," he muttered, somewhat icily to the priest, who half-smiled.  
  
"All right, Seto Kaiba," Priest Seto replied, floating toward the door of the room. "I suppose I will see you tomorrow."  
  
***********  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi and the rest of the gang had entered the large cinema, and were all busy doing different things, having already purchased the tickets and were waiting for Mai to arrive.  
  
Joey and Tristan, despite their comments about being stuffed five minutes earlier over at the pizzeria, were all over the concession stands, deciding which snacks to buy.   
  
Tea had purchased a drink, and was calmly sipping it as she sat on a bench next to the Coming Soon attraction posters. She sniffed in the salt and butter-scented air happily, enjoying the atmosphere.  
  
Amber, Duke, Yugi, and Pearl were all in the arcade, looking at the different games and deciding which were worth spending the money on.  
  
"The claw machine is cool..." Duke muttered, admiring the stuffed blue die that was a prize inside.  
  
Amber rolled her eyes as she peeked in through the glass and saw what was holding Duke spellbound.  
  
"Come on, Duke," she said playfully, pointing to the price of the game. "You could buy your own stuffed die for the price they want you to pay for the game, AND you don't have to try and win it that way."  
  
Duke bit his lip.  
  
"But it's fun to win it..." he muttered.  
  
"But there's the losing factor too," Amber pointed out.  
  
Pearl and Yugi stared at the two, both looking quite board with the conversation between Duke and Amber. Pearl looked up at Yugi and rolled her eyes, pointing at Amber and Duke, hoping he'd be interested in doing something other than listen to her cousin and Duke talk about claw machine stategy.  
  
Yugi giggled as Yami appeared beside him in spirit form.  
  
"Kuuki-hokkee wa zen imas," Pearl told Yugi, hoping she'd used all of her words correctly.  
  
She'd told him that "Air Hockey is good," in an attempt to get him to play with her. Yugi took the hint, and looked over at the long air hockey table that was across the arcade.  
  
"Hai," Yugi agreed, walking over toward it and gesturing for her to follow. "Ikuso?" {Let's go}  
  
Pearl nodded eagerly and scrambled over to the other side of the table. Yugi reached into his pocket and pulled out a few coins, and slipped them into the slots as Yami smiled.  
  
"It seems Amber's cousin is not so bad," he remarked as Yugi picked the puck out of the slot and put it on the blue table, where air was now coming up from the small holes that dotted the board, causing the puck to float on top almost.  
  
"Duel!" Yugi declared with a laugh, sending the puck down to Pearl's side of the table, where she quickly hit it back at Yugi, who barely stopped it from going into the slot on his end, preventing Pearl from scoring.  
  
Nervously, he picked the puck back up and set it on the table, swallowing.  
  
"You had better not underestimate your opponent in this game, aibou," Yami remarked, grinning slightly. "It seems this game will be a challenge."  
  
Yugi nodded nervously, shooting the puck back toward Pearl's end, where she scrambled to hit it back toward his end. With a hard shove, Yugi countered once more, so hard, that it went right through the slot, scoring him a point.  
  
"All right!" Yugi cheered, punching his fist into the air. "Score!"  
  
Gritting her teeth, Pearl yanked the puck out of the slot and smacked it back on the table.  
  
  
  
"I'll get a score this time," she thought angrily to herself, pulling her arm back for a hard-hit.  
  
As she did so, the pearl around her neck lit up bright, and the puck, as Pearl hit it, seemed to have become thicker, and more slippery. She hit the puck with such force that a bit cracked off, and the table was showered in bits of what appeared to be ice.  
  
"What?" Pearl cried, as the puck flew off the table, through the air, and right toward a wide-eyed Yugi.  
  
"Look out!" Amber cried, turning around and seeing the scene.  
  
To Yugi, everything looked like it was going in slow motion, and the strange, glistening puck came right toward him...  
  
************  
  
End of Chapter 5  
  
"^_^ Please review"  
  
:P And yes, a cliffhanger, I know. I love ending chapters on them. ^_^ Come back soon for Chapter 6. 


	6. Chapter 6: It's All Fun, Right?

Chapter 6: It's All Fun, Right?  
  
Notes: ^^;;; So, so very sorry for not updating sooner. It's been test week, and, well, I was beat every afternoon. -_-x Plus, someone was using the computer...X_X  
  
O_O Don't worry! I won't kill poor Yugi-kun! And yeah, Pearl's obnoxious. She's supposed to be that way. ^_^; At least right now, that is. And the rod? Well, it's only been a few days. ^^;; Don't worry. It'll be leaving that briefcase soon enough. :P  
  
"And thanks for the reviews guys!"  
  
***********  
  
Chapter 6: It's All Fun, Right?  
  
"Look out, Yugi!" Duke yelled as Pearl's mouth fell open.  
  
How had the puck suddenly become coated in what appeared to be ice? She thought to herself, her eyes wide as Yugi stood frozen in place, watching the puck approach him.  
  
"Move it, Yugi!" Amber yelled, but her voice seemed far away.  
  
"Aibou!" Yami cried, taking control of the body with a glow of the Millennium Puzzle, and ducking down under the table, letting the frozen puck fly by and crash against a pinball machine.  
  
The ice shattered off, and the puck fell to the ground with a clank. Yami stood back up, shakily, and turned to look at Pearl. There was no mistaking it this time: Pearl definitely must have had something to do with that...or else...  
  
Was someone stalking them?  
  
Yami whirled around to see if anyone suspicious were nearby, but only a crowd of small children and their parents were in the room, all of whom were looking at Yami and Pearl with raised eyebrows.  
  
"You're supposed to play nice," A little girl squeaked at Yami, shaking an accusing finger at him. "You'll get in trouble."  
  
Yami merely smiled at the girl quickly as her mother came by and pulled her out of the arcade before letting Yugi take over the body again. Yugi looked gratefully over at Yami, who was standing beside him in spiritual form.  
  
  
  
"Thanks, Yami," he said with a sigh. "I don't know what I was thinking...it was just so sudden..."  
  
Yami nodded.  
  
"I know, Yugi," he replied, his eyes narrowed. "Tell me, did you notice Pearl acting strangely before the puck suddenly came at you?"  
  
Yugi narrowed his eyes.  
  
"No..." he muttered, looking over at Pearl, Amber, and Duke, all of whom were running over to him. "I just remember she looked determined to get a goal...but she'd never try to hurt me on purpose," he added quickly.  
  
Yami didn't reply, he instead gazed over at Pearl, still curious. That was two odd occurrences, and Pearl was emitting a strange energy during each one. Was it merely coincidence, or did she have something to do with them?  
  
"Yugi!" Amber cried, running over to him, her eyes wide. "What the heck happened there? Are you okay?"  
  
Pearl gulped.  
  
"It looked like the puck was covered in some sort of ice after Pearl hit it," Yugi explained. "The weight and the strength of her shot probably caused it to leave the table. Luckily, Yami took over and got out of the way in time."  
  
Duke picked up the puck and brought it over to the other three, staring at it with narrowed eyes. He picked a piece of ice off of the puck and showed it to the others.  
  
"How do you explain this?" he asked, feeling the ice. "One second it was normal, and then the next..."  
  
  
  
"...it was covered in a sheet of ice, just like Joey's hand back at the restaurant," Amber finished, looking confused. "Do you think Anubis or Taerro are after us again?"  
  
Pearl bit her lip, only understanding bits and pieces of what her cousin and the other two were saying, but she knew what they were talking about anyway. Her. She and the strange accidents, and if they were connected.  
  
"I didn't do it," Pearl said suddenly, tired of listening.  
  
Amber raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Of course you didn't," she replied, looking strangely down at her cousin. "How could you have? We think it may be..."  
  
Pearl tilted her head as Amber trailed off. She didn't want to frighten Pearl by telling her about Anubis, Taerro, and the other strange villains that decided to attack them from time to time. No, there was no point in doing that.  
  
"It may be...?" Pearl asked, motioning for Amber to continue.  
  
Duke picked up on Amber's idea and smiled.  
  
"Just an odd occurrence," he finished. "There are some things that just can't be explained."  
  
Pearl bit her lip, not satisfied with the answer. Amber and Duke are lying, she thought to herself. They think I'm doing it all.  
  
"THERE you are!" Came a bright voice from behind them, and the group turned to see Mai walking toward them, Tea behind her.  
  
Following them were Joey and Tristan, both of whom were holding large containers of popcorn and Tristan was carrying a tray of drinks.  
  
"Take your drinks before I drop them," Tristan grumbled, and Yugi, Pearl, Amber, and Duke rushed over to grab their beverages before they ended up on the floor.  
  
"Thanks for waiting in line for us, Tristan," Yugi said happily, taking a sip of his drink.  
  
"I heard some yelling in there, were you guys having a fight or something?" Joey asked, peering behind Yugi to see a few of the smaller children playing on the racecar games.  
  
Yugi grinned embarrassedly.  
  
"No, we just had a bit of an accident with the air hockey game," he said simply, before pointing toward the movie titles that were on the wall. "Look! The movie we're going to see is about to start!"  
  
Mai checked her watch to make sure.  
  
"Yeah, we got about 3 minutes to get in there," she muttered, taking her ticket from Joey. "Let's go!"  
  
Amber looked down at her watch as well.  
  
"Wait, who was going to see the action film with Duke and I?" she asked, looking around.  
  
Only Tristan raised his hand.  
  
"We're down to the left," Duke said, pointing down one end of the hallway as they handed their tickets to the usher, who tore them in half and permitted them to pass through."  
  
Amber nodded before turning to Pearl.  
  
"Will you be okay without me around?" she asked, as Pearl was going to see the mystery film with the others.  
  
  
  
Pearl nodded.  
  
"I'll be fine," she replied, Tea walking over to them.  
  
"I'll keep an eye on her," Tea told Amber. "After all, I can speak English fairly well."  
  
  
  
Amber smiled gratefully.  
  
"Thanks, Tea," she called, waving as she, Duke, and Tristan turned left and the others right in the red-carpeted corridors. "Have fun!"  
  
Duke winked at the others.  
  
"You too!" Yugi called back, grinning.  
  
  
  
"Come on Pearl," Tea called back to Pearl, who was watching Duke and Amber walk off.  
  
She noticed that they were walking closer together than Tristan was with them. I wonder...she thought to herself with a sly grin.  
  
"Pearl?" Tea called again, uncertainly.  
  
Pearl grinned and turned around, running over to where Tea was.  
  
"Sorry Tea," she apologized. "I was just looking at something."  
  
Tea smiled as they ran to catch up with the others.  
  
"Okay," she said, accepting the answer. "Let's get going now!"  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Bakura was sitting at his desk, apparently doing his homework. No adult would find this odd, Yami Bakura had thought, knowing they'd probably just think he was a scholarly boy and wanted to do his best, but to any teen, there was something definitely wrong with doing weekend homework on Friday evening.  
  
And indeed, there was something wrong with this, as Yami Bakura was not attempting to do Bakura's homework for him, but was scheming, as he usually did when he discovered new information.  
  
"Yugi has the necklace and the puzzle, and Kaiba has the rod," he muttered, scribbling hieroglyphs on a piece of blank paper.  
  
No one would be able to decipher that, and besides, it was the only form of writing he knew.  
  
"Shadi has the key and the scales, and I have the ring and the eye," he muttered, looking over at a small drawer of his desk.  
  
That was his hiding place for the eye, so that no one became suspicious if it fell out of a pocket or something while he was in public.  
  
"So, the whereabouts of the Millennium Items are all set down in stone," he muttered. "The first one on my list will be the rod, as Kaiba is no threat at all when it comes to the magical world."  
  
"But then there are other mystical forces out there, such as the spirit within that boy, Taerro," Yami Bakura muttered to himself. "Curse the day I freed that ridiculous spirit from the shadows."  
  
"Then there is the high priest's spirit, and the powerful White Dragon ka," he continued in a low murmur. "And the other force that the ring detected today while I was on the streets. It was pointing toward the other side of the city...but what could it have been?"  
  
Clenching his fists, he stood up.  
  
"With so many competitors out there, I must begin more work soon," he muttered. "I must discover this new power before anyone else does, and use it to begin my mission to obtain the Millennium Items once again."  
  
With that, he tossed his head back and laughed maniacally.  
  
************   
  
Meanwhile, Yugi's group had seated themselves in the back of the theater just as the commercials began rolling. While an ad for Pepsi was rolling by, Pearl suddenly realized that without much knowledge of the Japanese language, a movie was going to be very boring, as well as confusing, for her.  
  
Sighing, she sat down next to Mai, who was calmly looking through her purse for something. Pearl huffed, and rested her elbow on the plastic armrest that was connected to the movie theater chair and placed her chin in the palm of her hand.  
  
Mai noticed the girl's sad expression and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked, in Japanese, hoping Pearl would understand.  
  
  
  
"Nothing," Pearl replied, also in Japanese, wishing she could tell the woman what was really going on.  
  
Mai looked up at the screen and suddenly understood.  
  
"Oh...you can't understand the movie very well, can you?" she asked slowly.  
  
It took Pearl a moment to translate what Mai had said, but then shook her head.  
  
"Nope," she sighed.  
  
"Hm..." Mai put her hand to her chin thoughtfully, wondering if there was something that Pearl could do that would be just as fun.  
  
Pearl glanced over at Yugi and Tea, both of whom were chuckling and pointing at the screen. Joey was digging into the extra large popcorn he'd gotten, his eyes glued to the screen.  
  
It was when she noticed Tea blushing slightly at something that an idea came to her.  
  
"People are kissing while movie, right?" Pearl asked, quickly, mixing up some words.  
  
Mai raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Right..." she replied slowly. "Sometimes."  
  
Pearl grinned mischievously.  
  
"Amber and Duke?" she asked softly.  
  
Suddenly, Mai's expression changed from puzzlement to slyness. A small crept over her face and she nodded, understand the girl's plan.  
  
"Yeah," she replied, standing up slowly and following Pearl out of the theater slowly.  
  
Pearl glanced back at the other three, but they seemed quite absorbed in the film, and they didn't even notice that Mai and Pearl were leaving.  
  
"Let's go," Mai whispered, and Pearl and she, giggling slightly, crept out of the theater and back into the hallway.  
  
***********  
  
Bastet's ears pricked up as she sensed something strange. She glanced over at Thoth, who was outside the temple, looking up at the bright, white moon. Being the god of the moon, he had a fondness for it and would sometimes stare at it for hours in meditation.  
  
"Thoth!" Bastet hissed hurriedly, trotting out and over to him.  
  
Thoth looked down slowly at Bastet, coming back to reality.  
  
"Yes, Bastet?" he asked.  
  
Bastet narrowed her eyes and looked around cautiously.  
  
"I think our old "friend" may be up to something," she muttered, looking out over the horizon and over at the temple of Anubis. "Do you think it would be wise to pay him a visit?"  
  
Thoth nodded, but hesitated, remembering his last visit to Anubis's temple. He'd been knocked out and put under a sleeping spell for a few days, until Bastet had managed to find him.  
  
"Yes, I do think that would be a good idea," he agreed, standing up, now having to look down to see his friend. "But we should not go alone."  
  
Bastet nodded.  
  
"I agree," she replied, a blue substance forming over her. "We'll go together. And I'll let the mortals in Domino know to be on their guard."  
  
And with a puff of blue smoke, the two disappeared.  
  
************  
  
  
  
Priest Seto was floating through the blackness of the Kaiba Manor's hallways, listening to the small sounds of the sleeping inhabitants as he passed by their doors.  
  
"Hm, as a spirit, I suppose it's not necessary to sleep, but I do get tired just like the living do," he muttered to himself, his spiritual eyelids growing heavy. "Perhaps I ought to just go to sleep as well..."  
  
His mind was just starting to drift back to thoughts about Yami Taerro and the rod, when someone else entered his mind.  
  
"Priest," Came a soft and misty voice, causing Priest Seto to forget his weariness and close his eyes in concentration.  
  
  
  
"Bastet?" he asked, having become accustomed to her regime having been on the job for several weeks now.  
  
"Yes," Bastet replied, her voice echoing slightly through their mental link. "Priest, be on your guard. I have a feeling that Anubis may be up to something once again," she muttered.  
  
Priest Seto narrowed his eyebrows closer together in suspicion.  
  
"Really? We only defeated him last week," he replied.  
  
Bastet sighed.  
  
"I know, but this is not a human enemy, priest, this is a deity who wants power," she snapped impatiently. "Now be alert and notify me at once if you see him."  
  
Priest Seto nodded.  
  
"All right," he replied, somewhat irritated by her lack of patience with him.  
  
Without a reply, the mental link was cut off.  
  
"Hm...Anubis?" Priest Seto muttered, putting his hand to his chin in wonder.  
  
He wasn't tired anymore.  
  
**********  
  
Review! Review!  
  
"^_^ Please do. And we will try our best to have the next chappie up tomorrow, but if not, it'll definitely be up on Thursday." 


	7. Chapter 7: Kiss Good Times GoodBye

Chapter 7: Kiss Good Times Good-Bye  
  
Notes: ^^ Little play on words for the title. Heh heh, anyway, thanks for your reviews...  
  
"...and here's Chapter 7!"  
  
************  
  
Chapter 7: Kiss Good Times Good-Bye  
  
Tea shivered as the killer in the movie they were watching approached the helpless teen walking home from the party in the dark alley. His long shadow was visible on the brick wall and the girl wasn't noticing!  
  
"Oo! I can't take suspense sometimes!" Tea cried softly, shutting her eyes, knowing any minute there would be a scream.  
  
Joey laughed. Well, attempted to laugh at least. His mouth was full of popcorn, so it was more of a "hoh" if anything.  
  
Yugi smiled, despite the fact it was a creepy moment in the movie.  
  
"It's okay, Tea," he whispered, taking a sip of his drink. "It'll be over in a minute."  
  
"Easy for you to say. The poor girl," Tea muttered as the anticipated shriek rang out through the theater and the maniac laugh of the killer.  
  
Yugi cringed as Yami appeared beside him.  
  
"I know it's just a movie, but it's still spooky," he muttered to Yami with an embarrassed grin, though Yami looked quite fascinated with the movie screen.  
  
"It is quite interesting, though," Yami nodded, before sensing something strange.  
  
Turning sharply to the side, he noticed two empty seats where Mai and Pearl should have been.  
  
"Yugi...where did Mai and Pearl go?" he asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously as Yugi looked over.  
  
Yugi raised an eyebrow as well.  
  
  
  
"I...don't know," he muttered, looking over on the other side, to see if perhaps they'd switched sides to be next to Joey, but they were not there either. "Maybe they had to go to the bathroom or something," he suggested.  
  
"Maybe..." Yami nodded vaguely, curious as to where they could have gone off to.  
  
***********  
  
Meanwhile, Mai and Pearl walked casually down the red-carpeted hallways, glancing at the movie posters for the different films playing that evening.  
  
"No action film here," Mai muttered, wondering how much Japanese Pearl could understand. "Maybe this way," she suggested, pointing right as they approached a fork in the hallway.  
  
Peal nodded.  
  
"Yeah," she agreed, figuring Mai meant turn right.  
  
"Ug, maybe we should have tried the other way," Mai muttered, wrinkling her nose in disgust at a poster of a gory-looking science-fiction film.  
  
Pearl's eyes suddenly lit up and she ran over to a poster and a double-door leading to a theater at the end of the hallway, her white hair flying behind her.  
  
"This is it!" she cried, grinning eagerly.  
  
Mai nodded, smirking slyly as she walked briskly over to the theater.  
  
"It is," she agreed. "Now, let's go."  
  
She slowly opened the door to the theater and stepped inside the blackness, the noise of gunshots ringing out from the speakers filling the atmosphere around them.  
  
"Thanks," Pearl whispered, ducking under Mai's arm that was supporting the door and into the theater.  
  
Mai nodded, letting the door close as she walked over to an aisle and peered down the rows. A few young boys and their fathers, a teen and her friend, and an old couple were sitting in various spots around the somewhat empty  
  
theater.  
  
"There they are!" Pearl whispered, pointing up toward the front of the theater.  
  
Sure enough, Amber, Duke, and Tristan were sitting there, heads all turned toward the movie screen. It was pretty easy to spot them, Pearl thought to herself with a grin. All I had to do was look for Tristan.  
  
Mai nodded, smirking.  
  
"All right," she said slowly, hoping Pearl would get the idea as she bent down to talk to her. "We'll go sit in the seats a two rows behind them."  
  
Pearl raised an eyebrow, looking completely confused.  
  
"What?" she asked quietly.  
  
Mai sighed and smiled.  
  
"Follow me," she whispered, taking her hand and walking to the row she had mentioned, leaving an empty row in between them and the others, so they wouldn't accidentally notice them by turning around slightly.  
  
Mai sat down in the seat slowly and grinned as Duke turned toward Amber. Pearl's eyes widened eagerly, but her smile dripped off her face instantly when she realized Duke had only wanted the popcorn.  
  
"Darn," she muttered quietly and Mai sighed.  
  
"Don't worry," Mai muttered in reply with a grin. "He's bound to kiss her eventually during the film."  
  
A loud explosion rang out on the screen, and Mai cringed.  
  
"If I live through all this noise," she added in irritation, putting a hand up to her cheek and resting her chin on it.  
  
Pearl giggled to herself, and unbeknownst to her at least, the pearl around her neck lit up with the same soft glow once again.  
  
************  
  
Yugi nervously looked beside him again, biting his lip. He couldn't concentrate on the movie anymore, knowing that Mai and Pearl had been gone for nearly twenty minutes without returning.  
  
"Yami, where do you think they've gone to?" he whispered to his spiritual friend, nervously.  
  
Yami sighed, looking at the double doors to the theater hopefully, but no one entered.  
  
"I do not know, Yugi," he replied. "Perhaps they didn't want to watch the film after all."  
  
  
  
Yugi sighed.  
  
"I don't know what Pearl could do aside from..."  
  
Yugi trailed off, realizing Pearl wouldn't be able to understand the movie even if she WERE watching.  
  
"Yami! Maybe they went back to the arcade or something because Pearl couldn't understand the movie!" he whispered.  
  
Yami nodded, though felt that was an oddly simple answer to the problem. Pearl, a mischievous ten-year old, and Mai, a sometimes sneaky and risk-taking woman were not a good combination.  
  
"Perhaps..." he muttered in reply.  
  
Yugi bit his lip, and stood up.  
  
"Where are you going, Yugi?" Tea gasped, a bit jumpy from the movie, and any movement making her nervous.  
  
Yugi smiled as best he could.  
  
"I'm just going to go check on something," he muttered, walking out of the aisle and out the doors.  
  
Tea tilted her head, noticing Pearl and Mai were gone as well.  
  
"Joey..." she muttered vaguely, still staring at the empty seats as she prodded Joey's arm. "Where do you think Yugi, Pearl, and Mai went?"  
  
"...Eh?" Joey muttered absentmindedly, staring at the screen.  
  
Tea sighed, letting her shoulders fall. Hopefully, she thought, they just went to the restroom or something. I hope nothing's wrong...  
  
************  
  
"This movie's pretty good, huh?" Duke asked Amber and Tristan as he leaned over Tristan's elbow and scooped up a handful of popcorn from the large bag the three were sharing.  
  
Tristan nodded.  
  
"Yeah, with the exception of a good cast," he replied critically, narrowing his eyes. "I mean, there's not one decent actor in this entire movie."  
  
Amber rolled her eyes, taking a sip of her own drink.  
  
"You're just saying that because there's no one that you've ever heard of in it," she replied in a whisper with a sly smile.  
  
Duke and she both started laughing quietly as Tristan frowned in embarrassment.  
  
"All right, all right, you two clowns," he muttered, standing up with the empty popcorn bag. "I'm going to go see if I can get a refill on this thing. I think the advertisement said something like that..."  
  
Tristan slouched away, leaving Duke and Amber alone in their row, watching the movie attentively. Behind them, Pearl and Mai were watching the two with excited expressions.  
  
All right, that other dude's gone, Pearl thought eagerly to herself, watching every movement her cousin and Duke made.  
  
This is good, Mai thought to herself with a smirk. They'd be more likely to kiss when Tristan's not hanging around to watch.  
  
No one noticed, but the soft glow in Pearl's pearl had died down now and it was resting peaceful against her chest.  
  
************  
  
Yugi panted as he looked around the arcade. The kids from before had left, and now the arcade was mostly empty, with the exception of two high-school age boys who were hanging out near the claw machine.  
  
"Yami, they're not in the lobby OR in the arcade," Yugi said worriedly, his eyebrows knitted in concern. "And if they'd gone to the restroom, they would've been out by now!"  
  
Yami nodded solemnly, although he was sensing the strange energies again. Had Pearl and Mai been abducted by an enemy? He wondered to himself. He glanced around again, but the energies were no longer sensible, and he could not sense an evil presence nearby.  
  
"I do not know where they could have gone..." Yami muttered, looking around once more, hoping to see the blonde-haired woman or the white-haired girl coming toward them, to no avail.  
  
Yugi bit his lip, looking up at his partner.  
  
"Do you think I should ask security to look for them?" he asked. "I mean, it's almost been a half hour!"  
  
Yami thought for a moment, and then nodded.  
  
"Perhaps you should, aibou," he agreed at last, and Yugi hurried off toward the ticket clerk.  
  
************  
  
Yami Taerro stretched out on a bench in the heart of Domino park, the darkness of night all around him and the shadows from the streetlights obscuring him from view.  
  
"Ahhh, the pleasantness darkness brings," he muttered with a sigh, closing his eyes in relaxation. "And soon, the entire world will be under my dark control."  
  
He grinned to himself, pleased to finally be the force at power, rather than the weak one of the power-hunters. No more of that, now, he thought to himself, remembering how easily he'd defeated Yami Bakura, even without his full strength returned. And now...he was so close to becoming as powerful as he had been back in the days of the Pharaohs...  
  
"Well," he thought to himself, standing up. "I must prepare for my next capture, and hopefully, it will be enough."  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Pearl shivered and set her drink down in the cup holder that was attached to her chair. She pulled her legs up slowly and rubbed them with her hands.   
  
Someone must have turned on the air conditioner, because the ground's really cold now, she thought to herself.  
  
Duke suddenly moved toward Amber, and both Mai and Pearl leaned forward, eagerly. However, he merely stood up as a loud explosion rang out on the screen, and Pearl let out a small cry.  
  
Startled, Duke whirled around, only to slip on the floor, and come crashing down to the cold and rather wet ground around her chair. Pearl sprang up quickly as well, but too quickly, and hit her cup, causing her drink to fly forward and spill underneath the seats in front of them, and all over Duke as well.  
  
"Ow!" Duke cried as he hit his head against the floor.  
  
"What the...?!" Amber cried, standing up.  
  
"Uh-oh," Mai muttered nervously, standing up quickly and grabbing Pearl's arm tightly.  
  
The area around Amber's chair was not covered in anything, but Duke's area was covered in ice cubes and coke, and the floor was slick. Amber angrily turned around to see who had been the foolish person to spill their drink and cause Duke to slip like that.  
  
Her eyes widened in shock when she saw Pearl standing there.  
  
"Pearl!" she cried, her eyes narrowing now in anger. "What are you doing here?!"  
  
Pearl bit her lip.  
  
"I...I..." she muttered in English, but the people behind them started to muttered amongst themselves.  
  
"Sit down!" One woman called, and Mai tugged Pearl out of the row and down the corridor towards the door.  
  
"Okay, so that didn't go so smoothly," Mai muttered to herself, Pearl watching Amber bend down to help Duke back up as she allowed herself to be dragged along by Mai.  
  
What had happened back there? How had Duke slipped when she'd spilled the drink AFTER he'd fallen? Nervously, she watched Duke stand up and rub his head tenderly, and then he and Amber started for the door.  
  
What was going on?  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, in the middle of Domino Park, a blue light shimmered and a large and shadowy figure appeared in the darkness. No one was out on the streets at that hour, not that anyone who had been out would have cared anyway as the shadowy figure with long, pointed ears stalked down the sidewalks, carefully taking in the forces of the city.  
  
"Ah...Domino City," Anubis muttered to himself, looking around carefully. "Such power this insignificant mortal city holds."  
  
Closing his eyes for a moment, he pictured the little white-haired girl in his mind once again. Yes, she was in this city; he could sense vague traces of the magical energies she possessed.  
  
Most likely she'd be at the pathetic game shop he'd ripped up during Halloween to attack Yugi and the gang with during the party Duke had held. Yes, I'll try there...Anubis muttered stalking down the paths and toward Duke's game shop, a determined look on his face.  
  
************  
  
End of Chapter 7  
  
Review!  
  
"Thanks! And next chapter up soon!" 


	8. Chapter 8: Trouble

Chapter 8: Trouble  
  
Notes: Here's Chapter 8 now.  
  
"Pearl is in SO much trouble. O_O"  
  
^^;;; I know. Here we go, and thanks for reviewing all!  
  
************  
  
Chapter 8: Trouble  
  
The door to the movie theater slammed shut as Mai dragged Pearl outside and into the noisy corridor of the theater. A movie next door had just let out, and a crowd of chattering people flocked out.  
  
Mai pulled Pearl over to the wall, looking quite shocked.  
  
"Okay, I think we'd better just listen to Amber and hope she doesn't get too mad at us," she muttered, wondering how in the world Duke had slipped on a little spilled soda.  
  
Pearl, however, wasn't listening. Her brown eyes were open wide, and she was thinking hard. If it hadn't been the soda that Duke had slipped on, what HAD it been?  
  
  
  
She didn't have much time to think, however, as Duke and Amber walked out of the movie theater, Duke looking slightly confused, as well as hurt, holding a hand up over a large bruise on her forehead.  
  
  
  
Amber, however, was looking daggers at Pearl. Hands on her hips, she glared down at her younger cousin, who looked up, timidly.  
  
"Uh...Amber?" Pearl began quickly, but Amber cut her off.  
  
"Pearl, exactly WHAT were you doing in that theater sitting behind us?" she demanded, narrowing her eyes.  
  
Mai bit her lip, feeling slightly guilty herself. After all, she'd allowed Pearl to go into the theater to spy on Duke and Amber.  
  
"Look, Amber, don't be too hard on the kid, I mean, I had a part in this too," Mai began, but all four were prevented from saying anything further due to the arrival of two security guards running toward them.  
  
Amber looked up at the two with raised eyebrows.  
  
"May we help you?" Duke asked meekly, still rubbing his forehead tenderly.  
  
One of the security guards eyed Pearl suspiciously.  
  
"Is your name Pearl Lark?" The other asked, gesturing towards Pearl who's eyes were wide still.  
  
Pearl was too nervous to realize what they were saying about her. Istead, she didn't say anything at all. The security guard raised an eyebrow as his eyes wandered over to Mai.  
  
"Are you Mai Valentine?" he asked and Mai nodded, wondering why security guards would be after them.  
  
The guard gestured down at Pearl.  
  
"And this is Pearl Lark?"  
  
Again, Mai nodded. The security guard sighed with relief.  
  
"Okay, your little friend is out looking for you," The guard muttered, checking off something on a notepad. "Next time you go wandering off, tell the rest of your party so they don't get all panicky."  
  
Mai nodded quickly.  
  
"Yes...sir," she replied, wondering who'd been looking for them.  
  
The two security guards walked away as Yugi came running down the hallway, spotting Mai and Pearl at the end standing next to Amber and Duke.  
  
"Mai! Pearl!" he called, waving his hand. "Where've you two been? I was looking everywhere for you guys."  
  
He stopped and bent over to catch his breath as Amber made an impatient sound.  
  
"They've BEEN up to no good," Amber replied angrily as Tristan walked back up to them, carrying the large popcorn bag that he'd refilled.  
  
He looked from Amber to Mai and Pearl, and then to Yugi and Duke.  
  
"Okay...what's going on here?" Tristan asked, eyebrows raised. "Yugi and Duke look like they've just been in a fight and why are Mai and that girl here?"  
  
Amber crossed her arms.  
  
"I think I'm ready to leave," she announced, inside fuming.  
  
Pearl had ruined everything! First the dinner with her jokes about couples, then the games at the arcade by playing too roughly, and now the movie, by tripping Duke and getting security guards after her.  
  
Duke winced as he took his hand off of the bruise on his forehead.  
  
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he muttered.  
  
Pearl gulped. Now she was in for it. Amber was going to blame her for the entire mess, and there'd be no one to back her up once Mai left. Mai, noticing Pearl's tense look, put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Listen Amber, I know you're probably mad at Pearl, but I went along with this too you know," Mai reminded her. "So it's mainly my fault."  
  
Pearl couldn't understand most of what Mai was saying, but she could tell Mai was attempting to cover up for her, and Pearl appreciated it.  
  
Amber, however, still didn't change expression.  
  
"It doesn't matter," she muttered, taking Pearl's hand. "See you guys tomorrow."  
  
Yugi, Tristan, and Mai watched as Duke, Amber, and Pearl walked off down the corridor and turned a corner and out of sight. Mai looked quite guilty as she bit her lip.  
  
"I hope Amber's not TOO rough on her," she muttered, looking at her nails quickly to cover up her sad expression.  
  
Yugi nodded, still not fully understanding the situation.  
  
"Why were they here anyway? And what happened to Duke?" Yugi asked.  
  
Tristan sighed, switching the popcorn bag from one hand to the other.  
  
"A lot can happen in the five minutes when you leave to get a refill I guess," he muttered.  
  
Mai sighed.  
  
"Well, we were watching Amber and Duke from a row or two behind and then Pearl spilled her drink under the seats and when Duke stood up, he slipped," she explained quickly.  
  
At least that's what I think happened, she thought to herself. It all happened so fast though.  
  
Yugi nodded slowly, taking in what Mai had said, as a crowd exited from the theater suddenly, laughing and chatting and giggling. A young boy from the arcade was bouncing up and down, his tennis shoes slightly wet looking.  
  
"Mommy, there was a big piece of ice up near the front and we went ice-skating on it!" he cried enthusiastically. "Mommy listen! We went ice-skating!"  
  
However, the boy's mother was talking to another mother, whose child was performing similar antics to her own child as they walked away. Yami, however, gasped, and turned to Yugi, possessing his body momentarily.  
  
"Mai, where were Duke and Amber sitting?" he asked eagerly.  
  
Mai looked quite astonished.  
  
"Well, up front I guess," she replied, trying to picture the scenery in her mind again. "Well, a few rows from the front, but close enough anyway."  
  
Yami became a spirit once again and put his hand to his chin. Three accidents in one evening, and Pearl was present at them all. Also, every accident had something to do with ice. Was there a connection at all?  
  
Mai raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Something's up Yugi, and you're not telling me what it is," Mai said accusingly. "What are you thinking about?"  
  
Yugi clenched his fists determinedly.  
  
"I'm not sure yet," he replied. "But I'm going to find out."  
  
************  
  
Seto was peacefully asleep in his bedroom when a loud clunk came from his briefcase on the other side of the room. The metal case was resting on a chair by the wall, but for some reason, it chugged, as if something were pulling it, and it fell to the ground with a clatter.  
  
Seto's eyes opened and he instantly sprang out of bed, looking around suspiciously. His eyes suddenly landed on his briefcase and he slowly walked over to it, wondering how it had gotten on the floor.  
  
"What's going on here?" he muttered, reaching out for the handle, but at that moment, the lid of the case snapped open, revealing a blinding gold light coming out of the case.  
  
"Aa," Seto muttered, squinted and shielding his eyes from the glow as he reached in and picked up the long, cold handle of the Millennium Rod, which was, for a reason unknown, glowing brightly.  
  
He held the rod up and stared at it. The glowing was continuing as he held it, and he raised an eyebrow curiously.  
  
"Why would the rod just start glowing like that?" he muttered, the blinding light finally dying down as he stowed it away in a drawer in his desk, securely locking the drawer after closing it.  
  
Seto stared at the door for a moment.  
  
  
  
"The light of the Millennium Rod...it must be reacting to something around here..." he muttered for a moment before shaking his head quickly.  
  
Narrowing his eyes he walked back to his bed.  
  
  
  
"Nonsense," he muttered to himself as he pulled the sheet back up over his shoulders. "That rod just starts glowing randomly, that's all..."  
  
Or was it? Even as Seto said those words to himself, he found them hard to believe.  
  
************  
  
Amber stomped upstairs, dragging Pearl along with her as she did so when they had reached Duke's house. Duke sighed and watched the two go.  
  
"Hey, Amber?" he called after her, but Amber just smiled wearily back at him.  
  
"You go fix up that cut, Duke," she replied. "I'll be down in a minute."  
  
Pearl gulped.  
  
A moment later, Amber had shut the door to Pearl's room and turned around slowly, looking the girl straight in the eye.  
  
"Pearl what on earth were you doing?" she demanded, her hands on her hips.  
  
Pearl bit her lip.  
  
"Mai and I went to the theater you and Duke were in to..." she began, but trailed off, knowing she'd only infuriate her cousin even more if she explained the real reason.  
  
Amber tapped her foot.  
  
"...to?" she asked impatiently.  
  
Pearl looked down at the floor at the designs in each plank of wood.  
  
"To spy on you and Duke," she finished.  
  
Amber raised an eyebrow.  
  
"To SPY on us?" she repeated. "What for?"  
  
Pearl was feeling more and more ridiculous by the minute. All she'd wanted to do was have fun.  
  
"To see if he'd kiss you," Pearl replied.  
  
Amber's eyes narrowed drastically and she clenched her fists.  
  
"Pearl, what IS it with you? All day you've been acting just plain immature," she scolded. "First you wreck dinner by teasing everybody, then you wreck the arcade, then you make Duke slip by doing something stupid when Tea TOLD you she'd help you if you needed anything!"  
  
Pearl glared at the ground, tears welling up in her eyes. Amber was being so unfair! It wasn't her fault she just wanted to fit in.  
  
"Why are you trying to just ruin everything?" Amber asked, glaring angrily.  
  
"I'm NOT!" Pearl yelled back.  
  
Amber sighed in exasperation and turned around.  
  
"Just think about it for a while," she muttered and closed the door as she left the room.  
  
Pearl stood in the center of the room for a moment, her eyes narrowed in anger. Then, she broke down in tears and flopped down on her bed, burying her face in the pillow as she sobbed.  
  
Everything about the visit had turned out wrong, and now Amber was probably going to have her sent home. But who cares, Pearl thought miserably. I don't want to stay here and bother Amber and her perfect life.   
  
Angrily, she punched her pillow, letting a mist of feathers fly out and ran down on her again in front of her. Sniffing, she let her tears roll down her cheeks freely.  
  
**********  
  
Yugi, Tristan, and Mai walked toward the door to the movie theater, Joey and Tea running up to them, Tea looking quite pale. Yugi looked up at her worriedly.  
  
"Is something wrong, Tea?" he asked, his mind still on Pearl and the ice incidents.   
  
Tea shook her head, still looking petrified.  
  
"No, no, nothing at all!" she replied, rubbing her arms with a shiver. "Just the end of the movie was rather...weird."  
  
Joey rolled his eyes and poked Tea.  
  
"Nah...it was just a little bloody that's all," he assured Yugi, who looked rather shocked.  
  
"Really? That film was only rated PG..." Mai muttered, putting a hand to her chin, but shook her head. "Oh well. I'm ready to head home all. Later!"  
  
Mai waved as she walked off through the doors and out into the parking lot. Yugi waved half-heartedly back.  
  
"Bye...Mai."  
  
***********  
  
Yugi sat down on his bed later that evening, his mind troubled with thoughts of the evening's events. Pearl had been present at every accident, and every accident had something to do with ice.  
  
"Yami, do you think that Pearl had anything to do with those accidents?" Yugi asked, looking worried as he let his legs drape over the edge of his bed, the Millennium Puzzle in his lap.  
  
Yami appeared beside his friend, folding his transparent arms across his chest.  
  
"I do not know..." he muttered solemnly. "It does appear that she has something to do with it all, but I cannot be sure. It may just be coincidence."  
  
"But she was emitting strange energies too, you said," Yugi pointed out. "Does she have some strange power?"  
  
Yami sighed, closing his eyes in concentration.  
  
"Perhaps she does..."  
  
**********  
  
Anubis looked up at the open window where the wind was carrying down soft sobs of what sounded like a young girl. Anubis grinned, revealing his sharp jackal teeth as he prepared to teleport once again.  
  
"I can sense magical energies..." Anubis murmured. "It must be her..."  
  
He concentrated for a minute more before opening his eyes and grinning once again.  
  
"Yes, I've found the girl," he muttered to himself, and with a puff of blue smoke, he disappeared.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 8  
  
Review! ^^  
  
  
  
PLEAAAAASE? ^_^  
  
"Thank you! ^^" 


	9. Chapter 9: Deception

Chapter 9: Deception  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for reviewing everyone. o_o And wish me luck guys, cause tomorrow I take the SAT test. ;;;  
  
"^^;;; It won't be so bad, SK. Trust me. You've only been practicing for like, a year. -_-; Anyway, Chapter 9 up!   
  
And sorry there's not much Seto or Priest Seto in this and the last chapter. They'll be coming in soon enough, don't worry.  
  
"-_-; They're her favorites. How could they not come into play big time?"  
  
^-^ Yep! They'll be here soon enough! **looks extremely happy*  
  
************  
  
Chapter 9: Deception  
  
Pearl was still sobbing into her pillow when a soft glow of blue light caught her eye and she looked up with a gasp just in time to see the jackal-headed man appear in her room.  
  
Her mouth dropped open to scream but no noise came out. Trembling in fear, she backed up against the wall, as far away from Anubis as possible. Who is this guy? She thought frantically to herself as Anubis gazed at her for a moment.  
  
"Ah...Pearl..." he breathed, knowing her name upon having investigated the young girl's mind briefly during the minute he'd been in her room. "Hello."  
  
Pearl's eyes widened even more.  
  
"H...how do you know my name?" she asked in English, wondering why he was speaking her native language, and not Japanese.  
  
Anubis grinned.  
  
"I know many things about you, Pearl," he replied, looking down at the pearl around her neck. "But you must know nothing of me."  
  
Pearl shook her head, a look of horror still on her face as Anubis crossed his arms, still smiling, though it was not an evil smile, but more of a friendly one.  
  
"My name, is Anubis," he explained.  
  
Pearl nodded, acknowledging him. Meanwhile, Anubis had found an interesting memory in the girl's mind; an even that occurred merely moments before his arrival. He grinned and decided to play upon it.  
  
"You are here to visit your cousin, are you not?" he asked innocently, looking around the room. "Why are you not with her and her friend?"  
  
Pearl's fear quickly disappeared and was replaced with a look of anger as she clenched her fists overtop of her blankets.  
  
"Amber's a jerk," she muttered spitefully, looking down at her hands. "She doesn't get anything."  
  
Anubis smiled to himself, but pretended to be concerned for Pearl.  
  
"Really?" he asked patiently. "How so?"  
  
Pearl sniffed.  
  
"Well, when I came to visit, I hardly knew any Japanese and so it was hard for me to fit in with her friends to begin with, but then these weird things started happening, and Amber blamed them all on me!" she burst out at once, letting all her feelings go, amazed she was telling this all to a perfect stranger.   
  
"Amber doesn't understand that it's hard for me, and she doesn't even TRY to understand! She's just so content with her PERFECT life, with her great friends and super-cute boyfriend, that she doesn't need or want me around!"  
  
Pearl stopped and took a breath, wiping away angry tears that had slipped down her cheeks as she'd been talking. Her hands shaking, she sniffed again.  
  
"And it's just not fair!" she finished with a sob.  
  
Anubis walked over to the bed and gently put his clawed hand on Pearl's shoulder.  
  
"I understand how you feel," he told the girl in a kind voice. "Your cousin is completely arrogant and unconcerned with your needs. I, however, am very concerned for you."  
  
Pearl stopped crying for a moment and looked up into Anubis's white eyes in disbelief.  
  
"You...you really care?" she whispered.  
  
Anubis nodded.  
  
"You have a special gift," he informed her, pointing down at the pearl around her neck. "You are aware that the pearl around your neck has great powers, are you not?"  
  
Pearl's eyes widened and she picked up the pearl, examining it closely.  
  
"N...no! It does?!" she cried eagerly, her tears drying away.  
  
Anubis nodded once again.  
  
"Yes, it does. And with my guidance, I can help you to learn to use that power to show your cousin and her friends just how great YOU really are," he said to her, her brown eyes filling with excitement and wonder.  
  
"I can really show them MY powers? The powers of this pearl?" she breathed.  
  
Anubis smiled.  
  
"Yes, you can," he told her. "All those accidents involving the ice? That was the pearl acting on its wearer's, YOUR, emotions at the time. Once you learn to harness that emotion, you will be far greater than your cousin could ever be."  
  
Pearl, for the first time since the argument with Amber, smiled up at Anubis, and stood up, wiping the rest of the tears off of her face.  
  
"Okay," she replied, as Anubis extended his hand.  
  
"So you will come with me then, to my home?" he asked, smiling invitingly.  
  
Pearl thought for a moment. After all, I DO have two weeks of vacation time here. I can spend it somewhere worthwhile instead! She thought to herself, taking Anubis's hand.  
  
"Yeah!" she cried happily. "Let's go!"  
  
Anubis grinned as the blue glow enveloped the two of them and they vanished in a puff of smoke from Pearl's bedroom.  
  
************  
  
Bastet crept through the door of Anubis's temple and peered down the hallway. Thoth stepped up behind her, his eyes narrowed in concern.  
  
"Anubis has changed his hallways," he said softly, gesturing to the fork in the passageways. "Only one way is the true way. He must have used magic to create detours in the cryptic maze of his corridors."  
  
Bastet nodded, looking at the dark, shadowy substances that seemed to cover each of the passageways, so that until one passed through, they would not see where they were going to end up.  
  
"It's a trick so we won't bother him," Bastet sniffed, narrowing her eyes. "He is definitely up to something."  
  
Thoth nodded as Bastet pounced toward one of the passageways.  
  
"Wait, Bastet," he said, holding out his hand. "I believe we should not enter just yet."  
  
Bastet turned around and faced her friend with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"And why is THAT, Thoth?" she asked rather stiffly.  
  
Thoth looked at the two passageways carefully, his eyes narrowed in concentration.  
  
"I believe we should be cautious with our approach," he replied. "It is not unlikely that these traps inside will be difficult to pass, and I know that I am capable of being defeated by Anubis."  
  
Bastet hissed.  
  
"Much as I hate to admit to that, Bastet, we MUST NOT underestimate a foe," he replied wisely, narrowing his beady eyes. "Especially a fellow god."  
  
***********  
  
Amber sighed as she walked into the kitchen, her arms crossed. Duke was sitting on the couch, holding an ice pack up to his forehead. He raised an eyebrow as Amber sighed and sat down on the other side.  
  
"What did you say to her?" he asked curiously.  
  
Amber shrugged.  
  
"I just told her she was acting immature and stuff..." she muttered, trailing off.  
  
Duke grinned.  
  
"Well, actually I thought most of what happened tonight with her around was kinda funny," he commented, wincing as he pressed on his bruise. "With the exception of falling down in the theater."  
  
Amber smiled weakly.  
  
"Yeah..." she muttered, slipping off her slippers and holding her knees close to her chest. "I guess..."  
  
Duke tilted his head.  
  
"Something wrong?" he asked.  
  
Amber sighed.  
  
"Sorta..." she replied, looking down at the couch. "I just kind of feel like things have gone haywire ever since Pearl arrived. I mean, maybe it's because I'm just not used to having someone from my own family around. It's just been me up until now, over here..."  
  
Duke nodded.  
  
"And Pearl was just saying all the wrong things and she just really started to embarrass me..." Amber continued in a soft voice.  
  
Duke laughed suddenly, causing Amber to look up with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"What is it?" she asked, looking completely confused.  
  
Duke grinned and stopped laughing.  
  
"If it was what Pearl said, about me being cool or whatever, I actually thought that was funny too," he said, grinning over at Amber. "I think she's got quite a character. Just like you."  
  
Amber looked over at Duke with a small smile.  
  
"So you weren't irritated by Pearl?" she asked slowly. "And you aren't mad at me for having her come over?"  
  
Duke shook his head.  
  
"No, of course not," he replied. "She's just another addition to the gang."  
  
Amber sighed. So no one was mad at Pearl...except her! Amber bolted up from the couch, a worried look on her face. Duke raised an eyebrow.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned as Amber ran toward the stairs.  
  
Amber turned around for a moment quickly.  
  
"I kinda yelled at Pearl before, and was too hard on her," she said in a rush. "I just want to let her know that I'm sorry for it."  
  
Duke nodded as Amber bolted up the stairs.  
  
************  
  
Amber walked toward the door and slowly tapped on it, hoping Pearl would understand. Why had she been so hard on her? Amber bit her lip hard as there was no reply from the room.  
  
"Pearl, it's me, Amber," Amber said gently, and what she hoped was kindly. "I just want to talk about before...I didn't mean those things I said."  
  
Again, there was no reply. Curious as to whether the girl could have fallen asleep, Amber slowly opened the door and flicked on the light switch. Her eyes widened and she let out a cry.  
  
"Pearl!" she cried, realizing the white-haired girl was nowhere in sight.  
  
************  
  
Priest Seto's ears perked up as he sensed an evil force briefly in Domino, and then the trace of the energies disappeared. On and off all evening, he'd sensed magical energies, but he figured they could just be Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, or other unrelated energies, but this one...  
  
"It's Anubis!" he hissed, narrowing his eyes before concentrating for a mental link with Bastet.  
  
"Bastet!" he cried through the link, hoping the cat goddess would hear him. "Bastet!"  
  
There was silence for a moment before the silky voice of the cat goddess rang through the mental link back in reply.  
  
"Priest? What is it?" she asked, still sounding rather impatient.  
  
Priest Seto sighed, gathering his thoughts together.  
  
"I believe I've sensed Anubis here in Domino," he informed Bastet. "Only briefly, but it was undeniably his spirit I was sensing."  
  
Bastet's ears went up in surprise.  
  
"Anubis? In Domino?" she demanded. "What was he doing?"  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow.  
  
"I only sensed him for a few moments," he repeated to the goddess. "You told me to inform you of anything of suspicion."  
  
  
  
There was a grumble of annoyance from the other end.  
  
"Thank you, priest," she said sharply before cutting off the link once more.  
  
Priest Seto hung in the middle of the hallway, his right arm halfway in Mokuba's bedroom as he wondered to himself. First Yami Taerro...then Anubis? Sadly, he realized that there was definitely more trouble looming ahead than he could imagine.  
  
***********  
  
It was hours later when Amber, eyes puffy and red, sat down on the couch of Duke's house, hugging her knees to her chest once more. She and Duke had called the police, who'd performed an extensive search of the area, and found no trace of Pearl.  
  
Amber had called all of the gang, Yugi, Mai, Tea, ANYONE that Pearl might have run away to. Now, exhausted, she was sitting on the couch, the portable phone beside her, just in case the police or someone called with any news about Pearl.  
  
Duke cautiously walked over to Amber and sat down beside her.  
  
"Amber," he began, but she closed her eyes.  
  
"It's all my fault," she whispered, turning her head away. "I yelled at her and I shouldn't have, and then she ran away."  
  
Duke put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Don't worry," he said supportively. "The police will find her safe and sound, and you can explain everything and it'll all be fine."  
  
Amber sniffed, looking over at Duke gratefully.  
  
"Do you really think so?" she asked, swallowing hard.   
  
Duke nodded with a reassuring smile.  
  
"Yeah, it'll be fine," he assured her. "But for now, you ought to go up to bed and get some rest."  
  
Amber's eyes wandered over to the phone.  
  
"But..."  
  
Duke smiled.  
  
"Don't worry, I'll stay awake for a bit in case they call, and the phone ringer's loud enough that it'll wake us up if they do call," he replied.  
  
It was only after having said that, that Amber went upstairs to bed, and Duke went to his own room, rather sadly. Why had Pearl run away? He thought to himself, pulling his covers up over himself and leaning over to turn off the lights.  
  
I just don't understand...he thought to himself, closing his green eyes and falling asleep.  
  
***********  
  
Yugi sighed as he looked outside his window, Yami behind him, pacing about. He'd been out for nearly an hour in spiritual form, looking and sensing for some sign of Amber's cousin.  
  
"So you had no luck with finding Pearl, Yami?" Yugi asked, a confused look on his face as he stared at the moon that hung high in the sky.  
  
Yami shook his head.  
  
"Not a trace of the girl," he replied with a sigh.  
  
Yugi heaved a sigh himself as he pulled down a sleeve of his pajamas that had been pushed up in all the excitement of the evening.   
  
"I just don't get why Pearl would run away," he muttered. "It's all so strange. And with the powers that she might have..."  
  
Yami nodded.  
  
"This is a very serious matter," he agreed. "But it can wait until morning," he added, looking at Yugi's weary eyes. "It is time for bed, aibou."  
  
Yugi nodded slowly and fell down on his pillow, and no sooner had his head reached the pillow, he fell fast asleep. Yami, however, stayed awake, jumbled thoughts running through his mind.  
  
************  
  
End of Chapter 9  
  
"PLEASE!!! REVIEW!!!"  
  
  
  
Yes!!! And next chapter up soon! 


	10. Chapter 10: The Power of the Pearl

Chapter 10: The Power of the Pearl  
  
Notes: Here comes Chapter 10! And thanks for the well-wishes, guys. ^^;; Now I'm free! Until I get my scores back...o_o;  
  
"^_^;;; Oh well. Let's get on with the story, SK. And thanks for the reviews!"  
  
************  
  
Chapter 10: The Power of the Pearl  
  
Pearl and Anubis reappeared in a small room, the room where the green and black pool was, in Anubis's temple. It took Pearl a moment to realize she was clutching the jackal-headed deity's robe, and she quickly let go upon realizing it.  
  
"This...this is your home?" she asked, looking around curiously.  
  
Anubis huffed.  
  
"In a sense," he replied, watching the little girl look at his jars and tubes of powders and potions with wide-eyes. "You could say."  
  
Pearl grinned, turning around and looking at Anubis.  
  
  
  
"This is cool," she replied with a yawn, sitting down on the floor. "When do I start learning how to use the "powers" in my pearl?" she asked eagerly.  
  
Anubis grinned slightly, a small cot appearing in the corner of the room, blue glow fading off of it. He pointed to it with one clawed finger.  
  
"Tomorrow," he replied. "Right now, you will sleep."  
  
Pearl nodded, not wanting to make her new friend angry with her, and walked over to the cot and lay down on it. It was surprisingly soft, and within minutes, she fell fast asleep, dreaming about her newfound powers...  
  
Anubis, however, sat down with a satisfied smirk. He'd only too easily gotten the girl to come over to his side, and soon, she'd be destroying Yugi and the others FOR him.  
  
************  
  
The next morning, Yugi awoke early and pulled on his Millennium Puzzle as he got dressed. Yami appeared as soon as he'd finished preparing and dashed out of his bedroom.  
  
"Where are you going, Yugi?" he inquired as Yugi grabbed a piece of toast out of the toaster so quickly his mother gasped.  
  
"Yugi! Where are you going?!" she called after him as he ran out the front door, leaving it hanging open, one arm out of his coat.  
  
  
  
"To Duke's place!" he yelled back at his mother, answering both her and Yami's question. "I've got to help find Pearl," Yugi added to Yami as he dashed across the street before the light turned green again.  
  
Yami nodded.  
  
"Ah. It is important that she is found, before something happens to her," he agreed.  
  
Yugi nodded as well.  
  
"I know."  
  
************  
  
Yami Taerro, who had been walking down the sidewalks in the heart of Domino City, suddenly stopped, his eyes glowing yellowish. He looked around slowly and carefully, sensing something powerful.  
  
"Ah...the power of an item attracts me," he whispered with a smirk. "A very intriguing item..."  
  
He grinned, walking briskly toward the transportation center of Domino.   
  
"And no one will get it but me..."  
  
  
  
************  
  
Over at the Kaiba Manor, Seto sat at his desk, busily typing on his computer. Being Saturday, Seto didn't feeling like going all the way over to Kaiba Corporation to do the few pieces of work he had left over. So instead, he connected to the internet and was completing the rest of his usual Friday tasks that had been postponed due to the immense amount of paperwork.  
  
After a few minutes, the phone beside his desk rang, he and picked it up hastily.  
  
"Kaiba," he muttered, saving the file he had open on the computer in case he needed to view something else.  
  
"Kaiba!" Came a worried female voice from the other end, and Seto raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Who is this?" he asked, feeling that he recognized the voice from somewhere.  
  
"This is Amber Johnson, Duke's friend?" Amber said quickly, sounding frantic.  
  
Seto nodded.  
  
"Ah, I remember now," he replied, remembering a duel between her and Joey at Duke's Halloween Party the other week. "What is it?"  
  
"Well, you see, my cousin Pearl came to visit yesterday, but she disappeared yesterday night around 10:30, and we can't find her, and I was wondering if you've seen her at all," Amber said in a rush. "She's ten years old, has white hair, brown eyes, and always wears a pearl around her neck."  
  
"Hm..." Seto murmured, thinking, but he hadn't been out of the house yesterday since he'd returned home. "I'm sorry, but I haven't left the house since last night."  
  
There was a disappointed sigh from the other end, and noise that sounded louder than everything else that had come from Amber's end of the line.  
  
"Oh..." Amber muttered finally. "Well, in that case, PLEASE call if you see her, or anyone that looks like her. I'd really appreciate it."  
  
Seto nodded.  
  
"All right," he replied coldly. "Good bye."  
  
Seto hung up the phone and stared at the screen for a moment, though not really concentrating on what was on it. He was thinking about Amber's call for some reason.  
  
The fact that the girl mentioned was ten reminded him of Mokuba. No wonder Amber had been so frantic about it, he thought. But had someone kidnapped her, or had she just gone out and not returned?  
  
Priest Seto walked through the wall and into the room, looking around.  
  
"Oh there you are," he muttered, noticing Seto by the computer. "Who was talking through the...telephone?" he inquired, remembering the name for the strange device.  
  
"It was a friend of Yugi's," Seto muttered, resting his chin on the surface of his hand. "Her young cousin is missing..."  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow.  
  
"A young cousin? Has she been abducted?" he inquired.  
  
Seto shrugged.  
  
"The girl didn't mention," he replied, closing up his laptop. "But she said she'd been discovered missing last night around 10:30."  
  
Priest Seto's eyes widened.  
  
"10:30?!" he cried, remembering passing by a grandfather clock as he paced the halls the previous evening.  
  
That had been precisely the time when he'd sensed Anubis in Domino. Was it another coincidence, or could it be that...  
  
"Anubis," Priest Seto whispered, looking out the window.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow and glanced up at the spirit.  
  
"Anubis?" he asked quizzically. "What do you mean?"  
  
Priest Seto looked down to face his reincarnate.  
  
"I mean that at exactly that hour, I sensed the presence of Anubis in Domino. If the girl is missing, then it is highly possible that Anubis kidnapped her in revenge for past failures."  
  
Seto nodded slowly, thinking to himself. Could this have been the case? He stood up and glanced out the window.  
  
"Well..." he muttered, not quite knowing what to do.  
  
Suddenly, Priest Seto's eyes lit up. Something had suddenly crossed his mind. He needed to tell the Pharaoh about Anubis's presence during the past night.  
  
"Seto Kaiba, will you show me the way to Yugi Motou's dwelling?" he asked, looking hopefully down at the CEO.  
  
Seto sighed.  
  
"What for?" he inquired half-heartedly.  
  
Priest Seto narrowed his eyes, sensing another disturbance. The balance of magical items was becoming uneven...  
  
"I need to inform the Pharaoh of something that I sensed last night," he replied simply, eyes still narrowed. "And bring the Millennium Rod along with you."  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow.  
  
"What for?" he asked, walking over to the drawer and unlocking it, revealing the golden rod.  
  
"Just in case," Priest Seto informed his reincarnate simply.  
  
"Whatever..."  
  
Seto frowned, putting the rod in the silver briefcase and locking it shut. He then picked it up and walked toward the doorway, but had scarcely touched the handle when the door burst open, revealing Mokuba.  
  
"Niisama!" he cried, slightly shocked he'd almost ran into his brother. "I'm sorry!"  
  
Seto smiled.  
  
"It's all right," he replied, as Mokuba backed up into the hallway again and Seto joined him, closing his door behind him. "What are you doing?"  
  
Mokuba frowned slightly in worry.  
  
"Nothing really, I just got up," he replied, running alongside his brother as Seto walked downstairs. "But where are YOU going?"  
  
Seto sighed.  
  
"I have to go talk to Yugi about something," he replied, wondering what it was Priest Seto really needed to tell Yugi, and also half-wondering why he was bothering to go in the first place.  
  
Mokuba's frown deepened.  
  
"Niisama, I overheard the phone-call you had with Amber this morning," he replied nervously. "I picked it up when it rang and was listening. Your going to see Yugi has something to do with that missing girl, right?"  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow. Mokuba had heard about Amber's cousin's disappearance? He hadn't planned on telling him, for fear of frightening him or reminding him of when he had been kidnapped.  
  
But still, Priest Seto hadn't mentioned anything about talking to Yugi about the girl.  
  
"No, Mokuba, it doesn't," he replied. "The priest wanted me to show him the way to Yugi's house."  
  
"But you're bringing that Millennium Rod thing with you," Mokuba pointed out, still unsure of its powers.  
  
Seto chuckled to himself. Mokuba was a good detective, that was for sure.  
  
"Listen, Mokuba," he replied honestly. "This has nothing to do with Millennium Items or kidnapped children. We're going to go talk to Yugi, that's all. I'm bringing the rod along because...because I'm supposed to be protecting it."  
  
He figured that was a reasonable excuse. After all, he really didn't see why he couldn't just leave the thing at home himself.  
  
Mokuba bit his lip.  
  
"Okay, but you'll be home soon, right?"  
  
Seto smiled and nodded.  
  
"Of course," he replied, patting Mokuba's head. "I'll be right back."  
  
He opened the door and walked out, waving at Mokuba, who watched as Seto, followed by the priest who smiled over at him, walked out of sight and over to the garage.  
  
"Be careful, niisama," Mokuba whispered to himself, still wondering what exactly his brother was doing.  
  
***********  
  
At Duke's house, Amber sat at the kitchen table, her eyes slightly bloodshot as she flipped frantically through a phone book, trying to think of another person or place to call.  
  
Duke walked into the kitchen, drinking a cup of steaming tea. (He hadn't bothered to offer any to Amber, as she abhorred tea.) He watched Amber sadly, wishing Pearl had never disappeared more than ever. He hated watching Amber be so worried.  
  
A moment later, the doorbell rang, and Duke hurried over to answer it.  
  
"Hi, Yugi, guys," Duke said with a half-smile, opening the door to see Yugi and the others standing outside. "Come on in."  
  
"Don't mind if we do," Joey replied with a joking voice, and Tea promptly elbowed him in the ribs.  
  
"Jo-ey!" she hissed, knowing now was definitely NOT the time for his lame antics.  
  
"Ow!" Joey muttered dully, rubbing his chest tenderly as the all walked into the living room. "So, Pearl's disappeared, eh?"  
  
Duke nodded sadly.  
  
"Yeah, without a trace too," he replied. "She definitely couldn't have gotten out the window without a latter, which wasn't anywhere near her room, and Amber and I didn't hear a thing last night while were talking."  
  
Tristan put his hand to his chin, thinking.  
  
"Would you have heard if she went out the front door? Or if someone came in?" he inquired.  
  
Duke nodded quickly.  
  
"Yeah! I mean, it's just down the hall from the living room," he replied with a frustrated sigh. "It just doesn't make any sense. And Amber's worried sick, thinking its all her fault Pearl's gone."  
  
Tea sighed sadly, looking down at the ground.  
  
"Then there's only one other explanation," Yugi replied with a determined look on his face. "Someone must have taken her."  
  
Duke grimaced.  
  
"I hate to think that, but I'm starting to believe that's the only explanation for the whole thing," he agreed, slumping down in a chair, the others taking the couches. "But if that's the case, who would kidnap her?"  
  
Tristan nodded.  
  
"Yeah, I mean, she was only here for half a day. Who could have seen her, known where she lived and WANTED to kidnap her in five hours?" he asked.  
  
Joey shrugged as Amber walked into the room, her normally cheery smile replaced with a discouraged frown.  
  
"Hey, Amber," Tea said gently, as Amber sat down in a chair opposite Duke's.  
  
"Hi," Amber replied hollowly.  
  
Yugi bit his lip, then suddenly got an idea.  
  
"Guys, I have an idea," he announced, everyone turning to stare at him, eagerly. "I think we should all split up and comb the town for any sign of Pearl."  
  
Amber nodded.  
  
"That's a start," she agreed. "Though, the police claim they've searched the city enough.  
  
Joey narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Aa, those police guys never do a very good job," he replied, standing up. "I mean, after all, WE were the guys who found and stopped the criminal group back in September, not the police."  
  
He winked, causing Tea to giggled, and even Amber to crack a small smile.  
  
"And don't worry, Amber," Tristan added, standing up as well. "We'll find Pearl no matter what."  
  
Amber smiled gratefully.  
  
"Thanks for the support guys," she replied. "I really appreciate it."  
  
  
  
Joey walked over to the door and opened it, stepping outside.  
  
"Thank me later," he said shortly with a cocky smile. "Right now, Joey's on the case!"  
  
Everyone in the room rolled their eyes, but they were smiling.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 10  
  
Review!!!!!  
  
"Thank you. ^^;" 


	11. Chapter 11: Nobody Knows the Trouble

Chapter 11: Nobody Knows the Trouble...  
  
Notes: Chapter 11, coming your way.  
  
"And thanks for the reviews. ^-^ Buy whoa...X_X; You hate Pearl THAT much? ^^;;; She's not SO bad, although I designed her to not be very likeable at first. And she's got cool powers? Wait'll you see what happens to them though..."  
  
Enough Red! X_X Back to the story! Oh, and the infamous "clue" to the next story is hidden in this chapter if anyone's interested. ^^  
  
************  
  
Chapter 11: Nobody Knows the Trouble...  
  
Yugi, Joey, and Tristan walked down the streets near the Black Crown, searching high and low for Pearl. The gang had decided to split up and search different parts of the town for her. Amber and Duke had gone up to look around the Kaiba Corporation area, and Tea was hanging around the Black Crown, waiting for a phone call in case someone located Pearl.  
  
Yugi bit his lip as he looked behind a trashcan and into a dark alley. No, Pearl wasn't down there, he thought to himself, shuddering as a large Doberman dog came out from behind a dumpster.  
  
Hurriedly, Yugi ran back to where Joey and Tristan were regrouping near a bench outside the Ghostbuster Headquarters. Joey sighed, slumping down on the bench.  
  
"Man, no one's seen Pearl," he grumbled in irritation. "EVER. I mean, Ray in there said he'd never even seen a ten-year old with white hair in his life."  
  
He jerked his finger back at the Ghostbuster Headquarters. The gang had become friends with the owners ever since an encounter a month or so ago back when their Japanese headquarters was just opening up.  
  
Yugi sighed sadly.  
  
  
  
"I couldn't find a trace of her either," he replied, looking around for Yami, who'd gone off searching in spirit form by himself. "And I haven't seen Yami since he went off searching, so I don't know whether he's found anything or not."  
  
Tristan sighed, folding his arms across his chest.  
  
"I say we head back to the Black Crown and see if Tea's heard anything," he suggested, closing his eyes as he nodded and spoke very professionally.  
  
Joey rolled his eyes and gave Tristan a gentle shove.  
  
"Look, Tristan, JOEY'S on this case, so I'll be calling the shots, got it?" Joey asked, looking his friend in the eye.  
  
Yugi sweat-dropped as Tristan resisted the urge to give his blonde-haired friend a black eye. Instead, Tristan coolly stared over at Joey.  
  
"All right then, Mr. Detective, what're we doing next?" he asked in a low tone.  
  
Joey's smile faded and he scratched his head.  
  
"Hm...I guess we COULD go check and see what Tea's found out, now that you mention it," he muttered. "Yeah! We'll do that."  
  
  
  
Joey took off across the street as Tristan sighed, shaking his head as he walked after him. Yugi cast one last glance around the area to see if Yami were returning, but upon not seeing him, he smiled and ran after Tristan.  
  
"Yami'll figure out where I went," he thought to himself as he reached the other side of the road.  
  
************  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Malik?" Came a feminine voice through the other end of the receiver.  
  
Malik Ishtar rested his elbow on the desk in his room in the hotel in Egypt where he and his friend, Lishdo, had been staying. He'd given the number to his sister, Ishizu, who had been visiting Domino City, Japan, for a few weeks, and was anxious to see what she had to say.  
  
"Neesan!" Malik cried, recognizing the voice at once. "How have you been?"  
  
Ishizu smiled from where she was sitting at her desk in the small office she'd been given in Domino Museum, where she worked.  
  
"I am fine, Malik, and how you are and Lishto holding up?" she inquired.  
  
Malik smiled over at Lishdo, who'd been watching him, and had by now figured out that it was Ishizu on the phone.  
  
"We're good too," he replied. "But why are you calling, neesan?"  
  
Ishizu sighed and narrowed her eyes.  
  
"You remember that I've told you destiny will repeat itself, right?" she asked seriously. "That events of the past occur again in the modern times?"  
  
Malik nodded.  
  
"I do. Why?"  
  
"Because, I sense something ancient approaching, an event of some sort," she informed her brother. "And I would like you to pay a visit to Shadi to see if he has any information on what the near future holds."  
  
Malik nodded with a smile.  
  
"Of course we will, neesan," he said quickly to his sister. "Now you be careful over there in Japan," he said in a tone more that an older brother would use, remembering the last time Ishizu had called, with news that she'd been attacked by Anubis.  
  
Ishizu chuckled.  
  
"Malik, I am fine. Worry about yourselves, now," she replied. "Good bye."  
  
"Good bye, neesan," Malik replied, hanging up the phone.  
  
I wonder what events neesan could be talking about...he wondered to himself as he stared at the phone.  
  
***********  
  
Meanwhile, Seto walked briskly down the streets of Domino. He'd had his chauffer drive him to Yugi's house, but his mother replied that he'd gone out in a rush to Duke Devlin's house, and so he'd informed his chauffer that he'd walk from there.  
  
So Seto crossed the street, clutching the handle of his metal briefcase, the Millennium Rod rattling back and forth inside, and Priest Seto following behind him.  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes, slightly irritated by the silence. He decided to ask a question he had been trying to avoid, as he hated to sound like he was interested in the Millennium Item business and such.  
  
  
  
"So what exactly do you need to tell Yugi that's so important?" Seto inquired, his eyes still fixated on the sidewalk in front of him, so no one happening to overhear him would think he was talking to an invisible man. (Which, technically, he was. At least to most normal people, that is.)  
  
Priest Seto was also staring straight forward, and was genuinely surprised when he heard Seto's question.  
  
"Last night, around the same time that girl was kidnapped, I sensed the presence of Anubis in the city," he informed his reincarnate. "I believe that if Anubis has any relevance in this mystery at all, it would be best if I informed the Pharaoh."  
  
Seto nodded.  
  
"Fair enough, I suppose," he replied.  
  
There was a few moments of silence before Priest Seto suddenly gasped and stopped. Seto turned around and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"What is it?" he asked rather annoyed at having been slowed up.  
  
Priest Seto pointed ahead, Seto turning to follow his gaze and noticed Yami, in spiritual form, looking around at the people milling about on the streets.   
  
"There is the Pharaoh!" Priest Seto exclaimed, wondering why he was separated from his reincarnate.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow, but upon closer inspection of the crowd, he noticed the Pharaoh's spirit.   
  
Priest Seto floated forward, Yami noticing and looking up, somewhat coldly, at the high priest.  
  
"Priest," he addressed him shortly, crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
Priest Seto nodded.  
  
"Yes," he replied with a slight bow out of reverence. "I thought you would like to know that last night, around 10:30, I sensed Anubis's presence here in Domino."  
  
Yami's eyes changed from cold to surprised.  
  
"Here? Last night?" he asked quickly, rather shocked.  
  
Priest Seto nodded, Seto merely watching the two spirits from a distance, not wanting anyone to think he was strange for talking to people who weren't really there.  
  
"Yes, Pharaoh, and I believe that he may hold some connection to the kidnapping of the young child that the girl Amber called about this morning," he continued.  
  
Yami nodded slowly, taking everything into consideration. True, Anubis held a double grudge against Amber, Duke, he, and everyone else involved with the Halloween escapade. Could he have kidnapped Pearl as a means of revenge?  
  
Yami's eyes lit up and he noticed Seto walking up behind Priest Seto.  
  
"I think you may be on to something, priest," he replied, deciding not to be judgmental about the past in a situation such as this. "We should tell the others."  
  
Priest Seto nodded.  
  
"Yes," he agreed, and Yami, Priest Seto, and Seto took off down the street toward the Black Crown once more.  
  
***********  
  
Amber and Duke trudged up the stairs to the Black Crown and let the door slam behind them. They could hear Joey, Tristan, Yugi, and Tea talking in the kitchen, but they both doubted it had anything to do with Pearl's return.  
  
  
  
Amber sighed, stepping into the lively kitchen.  
  
"No luck?" she asked the others, looking around.  
  
Yugi shook his head sadly.  
  
"I'm sorry, Amber," he replied, closing the phonebook he'd had open on the kitchen table. "We didn't find anything. Yami's still out there look, though, so he may end up finding an answer to something..."  
  
Amber nodded hopefully.  
  
"Yeah," she murmured in agreement.  
  
"We had pretty rotten luck ourselves," Duke informed the others, putting a hand to his head. "Hardly anyone in this city knows AMBER, let alone her cousin."  
  
Tea raised an eyebrow, but decided not to comment further.  
  
"Well, I called a few different places, like the movies and the pizza place, but all of them said she hadn't been there at all this morning," she informed everyone else. "They sure remembered her though."  
  
Amber blushed.  
  
That, wasn't a good thing, she thought to herself.  
  
************  
  
Pearl opened an eye to see Anubis, leaning over the green and black puddle in the middle of the floor, murmuring something in another language and sprinkling different colored powders into the puddle, causing it to foam and hiss.  
  
Gently, she pushed herself up and stood up. Anubis, noticing the girl was awake, quickly stashed away his potions and powders and smiled at Pearl, who gave a small grin back.  
  
"Morning, Anubis," she yawned, looking around at the fire-lit room.   
  
It was impossible to really tell if it were morning or still night, but Pearl assumed it was morning, as Anubis was already up and working.  
  
He nodded at the girl in acknowledgement.  
  
"Can I start using the pearl's magic now?" she asked eagerly, plucking at the pearl around her neck.  
  
It glistened in the light of the fires, and Anubis could feel the great energy that it contained pulsing within it.  
  
"Yes, you may," he replied. "But you must solemnly promise to only use the pearl's magic under my supervision," he added quickly and sternly, stepping forward and looking slightly more menacing that Pearl had seen him before.  
  
Pearl shivered for a moment before getting a grip on herself again. Anubis is my friend, she told herself sternly. He wouldn't hurt me.  
  
"How come?" she asked, tilting her head to the side slightly, her brown eyes wide and curious.  
  
Anubis quickly put on a smile.  
  
"Because," he explained, pointing at the pearl around her neck. "We don't want any more accidents like last nights, do we?" he asked.  
  
Pearl shook her head sadly.  
  
"No," she admitted.  
  
"It's just until you learn how to control it fully," he replied. "I'll let you know when that is, of course. But for now, let's start with the basics. You know that the pearl's power is driven by the emotions of the wearer, right?"  
  
Pearl nodded slowly.  
  
"Yeah...I think you said that last night..." she mumbled, looking down at the glistening pearl.  
  
Anubis circled around her as he spoke, watching her closely as if she were a prisoner. He nodded in response to her answer.  
  
"True, I did," Anubis replied. "When you were upset in the diner, the magic was activated. When you were angry in the arcade, it was activate. When you were excited in the theater, it activated. But what I want you to learn is more than just mere activation. You must learn to control the emotions and use the magic to your OWN will."  
  
Pearl nodded slowly, looking down at the pearl still, fingering it around in her hands. Maybe it will be easier to control now that I know it's there, she thought to herself.  
  
"Now," Anubis said simply. "I want you to concentrate, and cover the chair over there with a thin sheet of ice."  
  
Pearl nodded and stepped forward, looking at the chair. Ice, ice, ice over, she thought to herself, but no magic glow came from the pearl and the chair did nothing except remain the same.  
  
Angrily, Pearl gritted her teeth.  
  
"Ice over!" she yelled impatiently, and the pearl lit up wildly around her neck as she cried out.  
  
The chair in the corner of the room suddenly became thicker and shinier, as a glistening layer of ice formed over the top of the stone. Excited, Pearl jumped up and down.  
  
"All right!" she cried, punching a fist into the air. "I did it!"  
  
Anubis smirked. This is going to be easier, and quicker, than I had originally thought. It is so easy for a young one to unleash their emotions.  
  
"Very good, young one," he addressed her, stepping forward. "I think you are on your way to mastering that pearl. And soon," he added, knowing this would entice Pearl to work harder. "You can show your unappreciative cousin and her friends what you are REALLY made of."  
  
Pearl grinned and nodded.  
  
"Yeah!" she agreed. "Let's keep working!"  
  
*************  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi, Amber, Duke and the others were still at the Black Crown, trying to figure out their next move. Yugi and Tea were looking through the phone book for more possible people and places to call, and the others were talking in the living room.  
  
"What should we do now?" Joey asked with a tired sigh. "I mean, wandering around aimlessly doesn't do much good."  
  
Tristan lowered his eyelids in irritation.  
  
"I though YOU were calling all the shots, Joey," he said pointedly.  
  
Joey scowled as the others sighed. But it was true; they were getting nowhere.  
  
Suddenly, however, the door burst open. Unseen by most, Yami and Priest Seto had floated into the house already, but all that they could see what Seto Kaiba standing in the doorway, holding his metal briefcase.  
  
Joey scowled again in annoyance.  
  
"There's a little thing called the doorbell, you know, Kaiba," he snapped at the boy as he walked in, following the invisible spirits.  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes but Amber jumped up and ran over to him, looking up hopefully.  
  
"Have you see Pearl anywhere?" she asked eagerly, but Seto shook his head no.  
  
"No, I haven't, but we have some ideas on where she might be," he replied coldly, staring at Joey as if he were an idiot.  
  
Which made Joey quite angry.  
  
"Well then SPILL, Mr. Know-It-All!" Joey retorted, marching right up to Seto and standing in front of him.  
  
Seto stared at Joey.  
  
"The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle and the priest are already informing Yugi as we speak," he replied, turning away and walking into the kitchen, where Yugi was listening wide-eyed as Yami and Priest Seto informed him of their suspicions.  
  
"So what are you saying?!" Yugi cried, his eyes wide in shock.  
  
Yami frowned.  
  
"We're saying that we think Anubis kidnapped Pearl," he replied darkly.  
  
************  
  
  
  
End of Chapter 11  
  
REVIEW!  
  
"^_^; Yes, don't forget the review." 


	12. Chapter 12: To the Land of Sand

Chapter 12: To the Land of Sand  
  
Notes: ^^ Thanks for the reviews guys.  
  
"And now, on to the land of sand. XD"  
  
^-^;;  
  
************  
  
Chapter 12: To the Land of Sand  
  
Yugi gasped as the others ran into the room, eyebrows raised, as they could not see Yami or Priest Seto. Yugi and Seto, however, could see, and hear, them both quite clearly.  
  
"So you're saying that you think Anubis kidnapped Pearl and took her to Egypt?!" Yugi cried, causing everyone in the room to gasp as well. "Why?"  
  
Yami lowered his eyes to the ground, remembering the ice events of the previous day, and how Pearl had been involved in every one of them. Also, the magical energies emitted during the accidents...it all made sense.  
  
"Pearl must possess some sort of power that enables her to have control over ice," Yami replied. "Anubis is probably after this power."  
  
Yugi narrowed his eyes as Amber ran over to him.  
  
"Anubis TOOK Pearl?" she asked in disbelief. "Why?!"  
  
Yugi swallowed.  
  
"We think she must have some weird power that Anubis is after," he replied. "He probably took her back to his hideout, in Egypt."  
  
Amber's eyes widened.  
  
"In...Egypt?!" she cried. "How're we going to get there?!"  
  
Yugi bit his lip but Priest Seto's eyes lit up.  
  
"I know a way," he said solemnly and closed his eyes, trying to form the link between he and Bastet once again.  
  
**********  
  
Bastet was curled up on the stretch of stone just outside of the temple of the gods, watching Anubis's temple with her yellow cat-eyes. He was in there, she knew it. But what was he doing...?  
  
"Bastet!"  
  
Bastet suddenly sprang up, a voice in her mind talking to her. A moment later, however, she lay back down, recognizing the voice.  
  
"Priest," she replied smoothly. "What is it?"  
  
Priest Seto took a breath before continuing.  
  
"We think Anubis may have kidnapped a young girl from Domino," he informed the goddess. "And taken her back to Eygpt with him."  
  
Bastet raised both eyebrows.  
  
"And exactly WHAT use would Anubis have of a little girl from Domino?" she asked skeptically.  
  
Priest Seto growled in irritation.  
  
"She has some strange power, and it's all part of his revenge, you know that," he replied rather pointedly. "Anyhow, we just need you to get us to Egypt quickly."  
  
Bastet scowled. If there was one thing she hated it was being ordered around, ESPECIALLY by mortals.  
  
"Fine, fine," she snapped. "Just a moment."  
  
With that, she cut off the mental link and teleported away in the blue glow.  
  
************  
  
Priest Seto opened his eyes again, pleased Bastet was going to help them out.  
  
"Bastet will come to take us to Egypt," he informed Yugi, Yami, and Seto. (He would have informed the others if they could see him)  
  
"Bastet's going to come by and transport us all to Egypt," Yugi told the others, grinning.  
  
Amber nodded.  
  
  
  
"Okay...and we can find Pearl there?" she asked.  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"Hopefully," he replied.  
  
There was a few moments of silence, in which everyone listened attentively for some sign of Bastet's arrival. Just when Joey was taking a bite of a cookie, a blue glow appeared on the table and Bastet appeared, causing him to jump, dropping his sweet treat to the ground.  
  
"Yow! Don't scare me like that!" Joey cried, wincing afterwards, realizing he'd admitted to being scared with Tristan and Seto in the room listening.  
  
Bastet scowled, slinking off the table and onto the laminate floor of the kitchen.  
  
"You're not in a position to complain, mortal," she retorted smoothly, glaring up at him. "I'm doing YOU a favor, remember?"  
  
  
  
Joey grumbled something under his breath and crossed his arms across his chest.  
  
"Stupid cat...didn't ask for your help anyway..."  
  
Yugi grinned embarrassedly at Joey's behavior and approached Bastet.  
  
"So...can you take us to Anubis's temple?" he asked kindly.  
  
Bastet hissed, flicking her tail jerkily back and forth but didn't say anything.  
  
"Fine," she said at last. "But I warn you, his temple is well guarded. He's put in new defenses, making it a much more difficult task to enter."  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Difficult?" he asked.  
  
Bastet nodded.  
  
"But enough of that," she snapped, getting in the center of the gang. "Come close."  
  
Everyone obeyed her, coming closer to the center, and in a flash of blue light, they all disappeared.  
  
************  
  
A second later, the gang found themselves on a stretch of stone leading up to a set of double doors. There was no mistaking it; they were right in front of Anubis's temple...  
  
Joey raised an eyebrow, stumbling away from the others.  
  
"I though this old place collapsed a while back..." he muttered, examining the like-new stone building.  
  
Bastet huffed.  
  
"Anubis has many magical abilities, mortal boy," she replied haughtily. "He rebuilt his temple in a matter of a few days."  
  
Joey's eyes widened.  
  
"Sheesh..." he muttered, studying the building again.  
  
"Bastet," Came a soft voice from behind them, and everyone turned around to see Thoth, the god of the moon, standing behind them. "You have gotten the mortals to help?"  
  
Bastet hissed and shot Thoth a death-glare. She hadn't wanted Yugi and his friends to find out they themselves couldn't make it past the barriers of the temple yet, and DEFINITELY didn't want them to get the idea that they were the gods "backup" or "helpers."  
  
Joey, however, snickered.  
  
"You guys were so desperate that you've called US in to help?" he taunted, making Bastet's yellow eyes glow and her silver collar light up.  
  
"Do NOT test me, mortal, or you will face my wrath," she hissed, bearing her sharp, silver teeth.  
  
Joey immediately fell silent as Yugi stepped toward the temple, Yami in spirit form beside him.  
  
"Pearl is in that building, aibou," Yami informed Yugi. "I can sense her. But..."  
  
Yugi raised an eyebrow.  
  
"But what, Yami?" he inquired curiously.  
  
Yami narrowed his eyes.  
  
"I sense someone else as well...other than Anubis," he muttered. "A powerful force of evil..."  
  
Thoth nodded.  
  
"I could be the barriers Anubis has set up in the temple to prevent anyone else from ever reaching the inner chambers," he suggested, nodding toward the temple.  
  
Seto crossed his arms as Tea shivered.  
  
"We...we should go in, right Yugi?" she inquired, tapping her friend on the shoulder. "I mean, we've got to rescue Pearl..."  
  
Amber nodded boldly.  
  
"Yeah! I don't care what barriers Anubis has set up," she agreed loudly. "I'm not going home until we find Pearl, safe and sound."  
  
Duke smiled.  
  
"Yeah," he agreed as well.  
  
Tristan looked skeptically at the temple doors, both of which were closed tightly.  
  
"If we go in, we've got to be prepared," he said wisely to the others.  
  
Priest Seto nodded, although Tristan couldn't see that he was agreeing. Instead, he pointed to the briefcase that Seto was still holding.  
  
"You may want to take the Millennium Rod out, just in case you need it to defend yourself with," Priest Seto suggested to his reincarnate who huffed.  
  
"I don't need to use magic powers," he replied stubbornly.  
  
Priest Seto scowled.  
  
"The Millennium Rod also has a second ability that doesn't include magic," he tried, hoping to entice his reincarnate into using it, for Seto's own safety if anything else. "If you pull off the end of it, there is a sharper blade underneath, like a dagger of sorts. It can be handy."  
  
Seto sighed, debating with himself whether or not to use it. A blade wasn't magical, and therefore didn't count as actually using the POWER of a Millennium Item...  
  
"All right, fine," he muttered, bending down and flinging open the case and lifting out the Millennium Rod.  
  
Everyone gasped and Joey pointed an accusing finger at the Millennium Rod in Seto's hand.  
  
"Kaiba stole your Millennium Rod, Yugi!" he yelled. "Kaiba stole the Millennium Rod!"  
  
Seto angrily snapped his briefcase shut again and glared over at Joey with his cold eyes.  
  
"I did not STEAL the Millennium Rod, Joey," he replied icily.  
  
Joey, however, wasn't convinced. He strode over to Seto and pointed down at the Millennium Rod that was glistening in the Egyptian sunlight.  
  
"Oh yeah? Then why've you got it in your case here?" Joey demanded. "Well?!"  
  
Yugi giggled, turning around and smiling. Joey's accusing expression was suddenly replaced with one of confusion.  
  
"What's so funny, Yugi?" he asked, scratching his head as Yami sighed, looking away from the group. (He still didn't approve of Seto handling the Millennium Rod)  
  
Yugi smiled over at Joey, still chuckling.  
  
"Kaiba didn't STEAL the rod, Joey," he corrected his friend. "I gave it to him."  
  
Now Joey, as well as everyone else, looked completely baffled.  
  
"But...but why?" Tristan asked, eyebrows raised as high as they could go in shock.  
  
Yugi looked a bit more serious now.  
  
"I thought he could do a better job protecting it then I could right now," he replied simply, turning back to the doors. "But for now...I think we ought to go inside and get through these barriers."  
  
Yami nodded.  
  
"Ah," he agreed as Bastet and Thoth walked forward to open the doors.  
  
"And rescue Pearl," Amber added, though she looked somewhat nervous as Thoth and Bastet flung open the doors to reveal the two black spinning portals from before.  
  
Duke raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Which way leads to Anubis?" he asked as everyone walked toward the inside of the temple.  
  
Thoth sighed, closing his beady eyes.  
  
"That is the first of many problems," he informed the group with a hint of sadness in his voice. "We do not know."  
  
************  
  
Mokuba sat at the kitchen table, tapping his fingers impatiently. It had been over an hour since his brother had left, and his chauffer had already come home saying he'd gone on to Duke's place by himself.  
  
"I called the Black Crown and they said no one was there, not even Duke or Amber," Mokuba muttered worriedly to himself. "Where did everyone go? And more importantly, where did niisama go?"  
  
Biting his lip he walked over to the telephone, picked it up, and dialed the number of Seto's cell phone, hoping he'd left it on. Hopefully, his brother would pick up and tell him where he was.  
  
"Come on, pick up niisama," Mokuba murmured as the phone rang for the fifth time.  
  
Suddenly, there was a click on the other line. Excitedly, Mokuba grinned and began to speak, thinking that his brother had picked up.  
  
"Hi! Niisama! Where are..." he began, but was cut off as a strange, computer-generated voice started speaking from the other line.  
  
"We're sorry, the number you have tried to reach is either out of calling distance or has been disconnected," The voice informed Mokuba, whose eyes went wide. "Please check the number, or try again at a later time. Thank you. This is a recording."  
  
Numbly, Mokuba hung the phone back on the receiver as the message began to play over again, but he didn't need to listen. He now knew something was definitely wrong.  
  
"Niisama's in trouble," he thought to himself, paranoid, knowing that Seto couldn't possibly have left the calling zone in on hour. "Something must have happened to him...but what?"  
  
************  
  
End of Chapter 12  
  
Review!  
  
^_^; "Yep! REVIEW!" 


	13. Chapter 13: The Encounter

Chapter 13: The Encounter  
  
Notes: Thanks for reviewing everyone! ^-^  
  
"Yep! And here's Chapter 13...ooo!"  
  
  
  
**********  
  
Chapter 13: The Encounter  
  
Joey sighed in exasperation.  
  
"You mean that you two don't even know what's behind those creepy vortexes?! Not to mention which one is the right one?!" he cried, looking from Thoth to Bastet, both of whom looked grim.  
  
Thoth shook his head no.  
  
"We have never seen these portals until last night," he informed the gang.  
  
Yugi looked from one vortex to the other, pondering.  
  
"Yami, can you tell which one is the right way?" he asked, though he doubted that if Bastet and Thoth couldn't figure it out, neither could his spiritual friend.  
  
Yami sighed and shook his head.  
  
"I'm afraid not, Yugi," he replied solemnly.  
  
Tristan sighed.  
  
"Then which way do we take?" Amber asked, looking at the two vortexes skeptically.  
  
Seto suddenly stepped forward.  
  
"Both of them," he replied, causing everyone to look up at him. "We can split up into two groups and each take one tunnel."  
  
Bastet nodded.  
  
"All right," she replied. "If you mortals are so intent on getting in, we'll split up. Thoth," Bastet said commandingly, gesturing to the second portal. "You take Seto Kaiba, the priest, and those two," she nodded toward Joey and Tristan. "Down the second tunnel."  
  
  
  
Thoth nodded.  
  
"Very well," he replied. "And you will take the others down the first?"  
  
Bastet nodded.  
  
"We can keep in contact through the mental link," she replied. "Let me know if you've found anything."  
  
Bastet walked up to the first portal and jumped through, disappearing. Yugi nervously walked up to the portal and turned back to look at Joey and Tristan.  
  
"Be careful guys," he called before disappearing through the portal, Yami along with him.  
  
Tea, Amber, and Duke followed in a similar manner, leaving Thoth, Seto, Priest Seto, Joey, and Tristan alone. Thoth approached the second portal and eyed it suspiciously.  
  
"You four follow me right after I go through, understand?" he asked, looking at all of them.  
  
"Yeah," Seto nodded, clutching the cool metal of the Millennium Rod's handle in his hand.  
  
With that, Thoth stepped through the black vortex and disappeared.  
  
Joey scratched his head.  
  
"Four?" he asked, counting Tristan, Seto, and himself.  
  
Priest Seto glared at Joey indignantly as Seto rolled his eyes, walking forward to pass through the portal. Priest Seto went after him, and the two walked through the black, spinning portal and a moment later, found themselves in a dirt-floored hallway, lit by small fires that lines the walls.  
  
"This reminds me of a pyramid..." Priest Seto muttered as Tristan entered behind them, closely followed by Joey.  
  
Seto shrugged, and walked after Thoth, who had begun his way down the hallway.  
  
"It seems like he's added different portals as a method of confusion..." Thoth muttered to himself, studying the new building structure.  
  
Thoth liked to know everything he could about his fellow gods and goddess's powers and buildings. The knowledge came in very handy at times, he'd found.  
  
"Eee...it's creepy in here..." Joey muttered nervously, shadows flickering up and down on the walls, formed by the fires that lit the passageways.  
  
Seto sighed and rolled his eyes.  
  
"If this is creepy, how do you think it will be when we run into those traps Anubis has set for us?!" Tristan hissed back, goosebumps rising on his arms.   
  
Joey's face turned from showing an emotion of horror to being terrified.  
  
"Don't remind me!" he yelled back at Tristan, his voice echoing in the hallway.  
  
Thoth narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Quite, mortals," he said sternly, as they approached a room ahead, where a green flame was obviously giving the room an eerie, green, and glowing look to it. "We are approaching a room..."  
  
************  
  
Pearl stood in the middle of a mixture of frozen books, chairs, animals, and so on and so forth looking quick pleased with herself. She'd been able to control some of her emotions, and learned what they did. Anger usually let out the strongest ice, and excitement led to the quickest results.   
  
The two combined was a very powerful force, and all she had to do was focus her concentration on Amber to create powerful ice beams and freeze things in a matter of seconds.  
  
Anubis smiled at her as she looked up at him, expectantly.  
  
"How am I doing, Anubis?" she asked, a big grin on her face.  
  
Anubis nodded, professionally.  
  
"Fine, fine, you're coming right along," he remarked, examining one of her other ice-works.  
  
Suddenly, his jackal-ears perked up and he turned around, snarling, causing Pearl to jump back in fright.  
  
"W...what is it, Anubis?" she asked, quivering slightly as she held the pearl around her neck tightly.  
  
Anubis huffed, his eyes narrowed in anger.  
  
"It seems there are some intruders in my temple," he muttered, striding over to his greenish-black pool and tossing in some powders. "Who...is...here..." he whispered to himself, the pictures beginning to fly around the puddle like reflections, on not of Anubis but of others.  
  
Pearl cautiously stepped over to where Anubis was standing and peered around him to see into the puddle.  
  
"Wow...so that puddle is magical?" Pearl breathed, watching the pictures go by in delight and amazement.  
  
Anubis nodded gruffly.  
  
"Yes...you could say that..." he muttered, as Yugi, Bastet, Tea, Amber, and Duke came into focus, walking down a tunnel in the temple together, all looking alert and prepared.  
  
Anubis's mouth turned up into an evil grin.  
  
"Ah...it's Yugi and his friends..." he muttered. "Bastet too..."  
  
Pearl frowned and glared at the image as she noticed Amber and Duke walking next to Tea, talking to each other.  
  
"And Amber!" she cried, pointing down at her cousin. "Now I can show off my powers to her and prove I'm not a little kid or anything like that!"  
  
Anubis nodded slowly as another picture came into view. He raised his eyebrows as a picture of Seto, Priest Seto, Tristan, Joey and Thoth washed over the screen and then a picture of a young man sitting in a dark corner of the green-lit room.  
  
"Who is that...?" he muttered to himself, not recognizing the figure.  
  
Shaking his head, he stood up again and turned to Pearl.  
  
"I will let you know when the time is right to show your cousin just how powerful you really are," he said to her sternly. "Understand?"  
  
Pearl bit her lip and nodded obediently.  
  
"Okay..." she muttered wishing she could show off her powers right then. "What are you going to do until then?"  
  
Anubis grinned, the image in the green room still flickering on the puddle as he sat down in an iced chair.  
  
"I'm going to watch the "show," he muttered with an evil grin.  
  
***********  
  
Yugi, Duke, Amber, Yami, Tea, and Bastet made their way down the corridor that led from the first vortex. Yami and Bastet were in front of the group, looking skeptically here and there, expecting a trap of some sorts to pop out at them any minute.  
  
Yugi was behind them, Tea clutching his arm tightly, and whether that was out of fear for herself or for Yugi, he did not know. But he didn't mind. Behind them, Amber and Duke were talking quietly amongst themselves, commenting on the scenery and discussing ideas on why Anubis would kidnap Pearl.  
  
"Wait, Yugi, you mentioned that Pearl has some power?" Amber asked, confused, looking up at the short boy, hoping for an answer.  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"Yeah," he replied. "Every time something weird happened last night, like when Joey's hand froze to his cup, when the puck froze, and the..."  
  
He trailed off. What had happened in the theater, he wasn't quite sure, but it probably had something to do with ice.  
  
"And the incident in the theater, Pearl was there," he finished. "Yami and I think she has some ability over ice, and that the power comes from the pearl around her neck."  
  
Amber's eyes widened.  
  
"Really?" she asked in disbelief.  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"Yeah, and that's probably why Anubis wants her, too," he finished. "Because of her powers."  
  
Duke bit her lip.  
  
"Wow, we'd better find her soon then," he mumbled, stumbling over a rock on the ground.  
  
Amber nodded worriedly.  
  
"Yeah..." she agreed.  
  
************  
  
Thoth, Seto, Priest Seto, Tristan, and Joey walked slowly and cautiously into the green room and looked around. It was empty, aside from a large kettle-type container that held the flickering green flames.  
  
Joey raised an eyebrow, confused.  
  
"Trap?" he asked aloud. "Yeah right. This room's completely empty!"  
  
Thoth glared over at Joey, irritated at his lack of discretion.  
  
"Shush, mortal," he hissed, just as someone jumped out from behind the kettle of flames, and into the light, causing everyone to back up.  
  
"Not quite empty, mortals," The young man announced, his golden glasses glinting in the green light as his evil eyes narrowed and focused on Seto.  
  
"It's...it's..." Tristan stammered, looking at his black-haired friend, the stolen medallion of Madam Christina's around his neck.  
  
"The Vampire Lord!" Priest Seto cried, speaking about the spirit possessing the young boy.  
  
  
  
"Taerro!" Joey finished, looking wide-eyed over at his friend, who looked quite possessed.  
  
Thoth grimaced, narrowing his eyes as he noticed another black portal on the other side of the room.  
  
"The next portal is there," he hissed, gesturing toward it with his head, hoping Yami Taerro hadn't overheard them. "And that young man has two spirits within him," he commented, studying the spiritual structure of Taerro's body.  
  
Tristan nodded.  
  
"Yeah, one evil one and one normal one," he agreed. "What do you want you evil spirit?" he snapped at Yami Taerro.  
  
Yami Taerro smirked evilly, the golden medallion around his neck lighting up as his did so.  
  
"I want your energies, mortals," he hissed, the blue substance forming around his hands again.  
  
  
  
Joey's eyes widened.  
  
"Not this again!" he cried, looking horrified.  
  
Priest Seto looked over at his reincarnate quickly.  
  
"Use the rod, Kaiba!" he yelled, and Seto nodded, lunging forward at Yami Taerro, knocking into his chest with the rounded tip.  
  
"Use the other portal and find Anubis," Seto called to the others as Yami Taerro got up again. "I can take him."  
  
Thoth raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Foolish mortal," he muttered but started toward the portal.  
  
"Don't be stupid, Kaiba," Tristan yelled back. "We can help out."  
  
Yami Taerro blasted Joey backward against the wall where he hit his head and slumped down. Yami Taerro laughed, turning back to Seto again.  
  
"Ow..." Joey muttered as Seto pulled the end off of the Millennium Rod, revealing the razor sharp end, just as Priest Seto had told him about.  
  
"Go!" Seto yelled angrily, trying to get at Yami Taerro once again.  
  
Tristan pulled Joey to his feet and put his arm over his shoulder as Thoth hurried toward the portal and looked back at the battle.  
  
"All right, but don't kill him!" Tristan yelled back finally, realizing there was nothing they could do about the situation. "He's still Taerro, you know!"  
  
"Yeah..." Joey muttered, slightly disoriented as Tristan dragged him along, Joey rubbing his head tenderly. "Still good old Taerro..."  
  
Seto nodded as best he could as he dodged Taerro's attack.  
  
  
  
"All right!" he called, and the three disappeared through the portal, leaving Priest Seto and he alone with Yami Taerro.  
  
Priest Seto bit his lip, knowing that summoning the White Dragon wouldn't help, as Yami Taerro would suck its energies away in an instant, leaving him weak and helpless.  
  
"Tap into the magical powers of the rod!" he called down to Seto, who ignored him, stabbing Yami Taerro through the shoulder.  
  
Yami Taerro's face twisted into an evil frown, and before Seto could make another move, his hands turned bright blue and glowing, and he grabbed onto Seto's shoulders tightly.  
  
"Ah..." Seto started to cry out, but he found he couldn't scream as he was covered in a bright blue mist, Yami Taerro's evilly grinning face in front of his.  
  
"Now, COMPLETE drain!" he hissed, grinning madly, the golden medallion around his neck lighting up as Seto felt every bit of his strength pouring out of him.  
  
His vision swam as Priest Seto clenched his fists.  
  
"White Dragon!" he called, and the lightning that accompanied his dragon struck behind him as the dragon began to appear.  
  
Yami Taerro grinned as the dragon appeared for a moment, but the medallion glowed even more brightly and the blue substance began to form around the dragon as well, making it unable to attack.  
  
"No!" Priest Seto yelled, the dragon returning automatically to his mind, as Yami Taerro laughed maniacally.  
  
"I am invincible," he whispered, letting go of Seto as Priest Seto looked on in horror.  
  
Seto gasped, his eyes wide, as Yami Taerro let go of him, and the blue glow died down. Yami Taerro hissed gleefully, grinning as the power he'd taken from Seto flooded through his body. Seto fell limply to the ground, the Millennium Rod clanging on the floor beside him as it landed against the stone of the floor.  
  
**********  
  
End of Chapter 13  
  
"O_O Okay...that's not good..."  
  
^^;;; Review!!  
  
"Yeah...review...O_O..." 


	14. Chapter 14: Disaster and Devotion

Chapter 14: Disaster and Devotion  
  
Notes: ^-^ Okay, here's Chapter 14.  
  
"And thanks for reviewing...O_O"  
  
***********  
  
Chapter 14: Disaster and Devotion  
  
"Kaiba!" Priest Seto cried, glaring at Yami Taerro, who merely smirked. "You..."  
  
"Almost," Yami Taerro whispered, with a hint of laughter in his voice. "Your energies will go to good use, mortal being," he added to Seto, who was gasping for breath. "When I become my old self again."  
  
With that, he quickly passed through the next black portal, leaving Priest Seto alone with Seto, who was still sprawled on the floor. Worriedly, Priest Seto knelt down beside his reincarnate.  
  
"Seto Kaiba?" he asked clearly, his eyes narrowed, too concerned about his reincarnate to make sense of what Taerro had last said. "Are you all right?"  
  
Seto's didn't reply, his eyes drifting shut, his chest rising and falling slowly. Priest Seto's eyes widened as he sensed the energies from his reincarnate growing weak and faint.  
  
"Kaiba!" he called, but it was no use.  
  
Priest Seto clenched a fist, watching his reincarnate slowly become weaker and weaker. Just like the victims of the Vampire Lord in ancient times, Seto had been drained of nearly all his spiritual energies, and that meant...  
  
"No...you can't die! You can't repeat the same mistakes, no, the same failures, as I did in the past! You can't..." He shouted, then trailed off.  
  
Seto's chest was barely rising and falling now, and his spiritual energies were so faint they were hardly sensible. Priest Seto realized with a heavy heart that his reincarnate was dying, and there was nothing he could do about it.  
  
"No..." he whispered, staring at the ground angrily, squeezing his eyes shut.  
  
************  
  
Yami suddenly stopped, and looked around, narrowing his eyes. Yugi looked up at his spirit friend and tilted his head.  
  
"Is something wrong, Yami?" he asked, worriedly.  
  
Yami paused, trying to figure out what he'd just sensed.  
  
"Nothing really...I just sensed an evil force...and a disastrous event..." he mumbled.  
  
Yugi's eyes widened.  
  
"Disastrous?!" he cried. "What if something happened to Joey or one of the others?"  
  
Bastet narrowed her eyes and looked back at the others.  
  
"I sense it too," she muttered, closing her eyes. "I'll see if Thoth knows anything about it."  
  
  
  
Yugi bit his lip, fretting. What if one of his friends had been hurt by one of Anubis's traps?  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Mokuba was sitting at his desk in his bedroom, flipping through a phonebook. He'd tried tracking his brother's duel disk signal, but he hadn't brought his duel disk with him. He'd tried calling every place in Domino he could think of where his brother might be, to no avail.  
  
Seto Kaiba was not in Domino anymore, and neither were Yugi, or any of his friends. Apparently, they'd all headed out to Duke's house, and then never returned. Mokuba bit his lip, remembering how Duke's place had been attacked by Anubis and his army of jackal-warriors back on Halloween.  
  
What if he'd come back for revenge?  
  
"Ooh, this is getting me nowhere!" Mokuba cried, snapping the phone book shut and closing his eyes. "Where would you be, niisama?"  
  
~Of course, I'll be right back...~  
  
Right back?  
  
Mokuba glanced over at the clock and saw that Seto and Priest Seto had both been gone for over two hours. So much for right back, Mokuba thought bitterly to himself. What have you gotten yourself into this time, niisama?  
  
Suddenly, Mokuba sat up straight in the chair, his eyes wide. There was still one place he had yet to call, though it was a slim chance that the person there would have any information for him.  
  
Still, he thought, picking up the phone and dialing. It's worth a shot...  
  
*************  
  
"Thoth..."  
  
Thoth stopped walking down the dark corridor and closed his eyes, causing Tristan, who was still supporting Joey, to raise an eyebrow.  
  
"What's up...er...Mr. Bird?" he asked, feeling stupid that he'd forgotten the moon-god's name.  
  
"Bastet?" Thoth said back to his friend through their mental link. "Have you found anything yet?"  
  
"No...but the Pharaoh's spirit and I both sensed something evil nearby. Did you sense anything?" she inquired.  
  
Thoth narrowed his beady eyes.  
  
"There is evil all around us," he replied. "I do not sense anything in particular...except I believe my group is nearing Anubis. Seto Kaiba should be joining us shortly. He stayed behind to deal with a possessed friend of theirs."  
  
Bastet raised an eyebrow.  
  
"All right then," she replied. "Inform me when you find Anubis."  
  
Thoth nodded.  
  
"That I will," he replied, cutting off the mental link and turning back toward Joey and Tristan.  
  
"Who was on the phone?" Joey asked, pushing himself off of Tristan and steadying himself against the wall, so as not to look "weak."  
  
Thoth sighed.  
  
"Bastet," he replied. "She said she sensed a great evil...but I think it's best we keep moving. We are approaching Anubis's lair."  
  
Tristan looked behind him. They'd travel a long way, avoiding all black vortexes along the walls and continuing straight forward.  
  
"You think Kaiba'll know where to go once he finishes dealing with Taerro?" he asked, looking mildly concerned.  
  
Joey shrugged.  
  
"He's got that weirdo spirit hanging around, so he'll be fine," he replied with a casual flip of his hand. "We've gotta keep going now."  
  
Thoth nodded, and the three continued forward.  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Priest Seto was still trying to think of a way to help his dying reincarnate, to no avail. He couldn't even touch him, let alone help him, and possessing his body would do no good either.  
  
"This can't be..." Priest Seto muttered to himself, staring at the ground.  
  
It just wasn't fair! Seto couldn't die and leave Mokuba, not now, not like he, Priest Seto, had left the Mokuba of long ago. He'd failed at his self-given duty to protect Seto Kaiba and Mokuba, and Yami Taerro was only growing stronger from it all...  
  
As Priest Seto angrily punched a fist at the ground, a blue light suddenly surrounded both he and Seto, and the White Dragon Ka appeared beside him, roaring. Surprised, Priest Seto looked up at his dragon, and then down at Seto.  
  
"Wh...what's going on?" he whispered, his eyes widening.  
  
He felt a slight pull, as if someone, or something, were tugging on him, and a moment later, the glow died away from both he and Seto. The White Dragon had returned to his mind once again, but that was not what Priest Seto was interested in.  
  
He leaned over Seto, tilting his head. What had that glow done? He thought to himself, when it suddenly hit him.  
  
"Spirit Transfer..." he murmured remembering the pulling feeling on his spirit.  
  
His devotion to Seto must have caused him to subconsciously transfer part of his own spiritual energy to Seto. A small smile flickered across the priest's face. Maybe now, Seto stood a better chance of surviving the drain...  
  
***********  
  
Seto blinked and found himself in a strange surrounding. He had been battling Yami Taerro and then he was drained of all of his energies, but then...  
  
"How did I end up here?" Seto thought to himself, looking around.  
  
He appeared to be in some sort of Ancient Egyptian palace, and around him were various people, all wearing strange, Egyptian clothing. Bakura stood across from him, a large and horrible looking monster beside him.  
  
Next to Seto, was Yugi, dressed up in a strange, maroon outfit with the Millennium Puzzle still around his neck. Next to him was Ishizu, the Millennium Necklace around her neck.  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes in confusion. Hadn't Ishizu given the necklace to Yugi...?  
  
Looking down at himself, he realized he too, was dressed like an Egyptian, and in his hands was the Millennium Rod.  
  
"What is going on...?" he murmured to himself, when Bakura began to laugh from across the room.  
  
A high-pitched laugh that only could be heard when Bakura was possessed.  
  
"Die!" he yelled, and the huge monster beside him roared, blasting a huge wave of energy straight toward Seto.  
  
In his mind, Seto thought "Move out of the way!" but it was as if his body were on auto-pilot. He stood there, frozen, watching the blast come closer, and closer.  
  
But suddenly, there was a tremendous explosion right in front of him, as a monster he recognized as the Spirit Superior was hit with the blast rather than himself.  
  
"Isis!" Yugi cried, in a deeper voice, causing Seto to realize that is was not Yugi there, but the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle.  
  
Yugi and he ran over to who Yami had called Isis, but she was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. In his mind, jumbled thoughts were whirling through his mind.  
  
Where was he, and what was going on?  
  
*************  
  
Meanwhile, Yugi and his group entered a large room, a kettle with blue flames on either side of a long, red carpet that stretched from one end of the room to the next. On the wall to the right was another black vortex.  
  
"There's the next vortex!" Yugi cried, running over to the black whirling circle, but was stopped by a sudden cackling.  
  
Everyone gasped as a strange, misty blue substance floated around the room, emitting an eerie laugh as it did so. Tea shivered as the spirit came to a landing on the other side of the red carpet, still laughing a high-pitched and eerie laugh.  
  
"Welcome, intruders, to the dangerous of Anubis's temple," The wispy blue spirit, who appeared to be that of a woman, whispered, smiling evilly over at the group. "Who will accept the challenge?"  
  
Yugi bit his lip. Challenge? They didn't have time to spare on a challenge! They needed to find Pearl and get out of the temple, and fast! But part of him felt the urge to volunteer. He didn't want any of his friends involved, after all.  
  
He was about to speak up, when Tea suddenly stepped forward.  
  
"I will," she said loudly, a determined look on her face as she did so.  
  
Everyone turned to stare at her.  
  
"Tea!" Yugi cried, extending his hand to stop her but she shook her head and turned around to face him.  
  
"Look, Yugi," she said seriously. "I'm not good at fighting, and I have no magical powers. I'm not related to Pearl, or anything like that, and I won't be of much help against Anubis. The least I can do is to do the challenge so you all can move on."  
  
Yami raised his eyebrows. This was very generous of Tea, especially for having no idea of what she was accepting.  
  
"Mortal girl, are you aware of what some of Anubis's so-called "challenges" are like?" Bastet snapped impatiently. "If we have to accept, let's at least get a worthy candidate."  
  
Tea frowned angrily, but Yugi walked forward, understanding Tea's offer now.  
  
"Let her do it if she really wants to," he told Bastet before smiling over at Tea. "I believe in you, Tea. You'll do fine."  
  
Tea smiled at Yugi, grateful for his sticking up for her. Bastet looked taken aback, and Amber smiled over at Tea as well.  
  
"Thanks, Tea..." Amber said.  
  
"Yeah," Duke agreed.  
  
Tea smiled nervously.  
  
"No problem," she replied quickly, looking over at the blue misty spirit. "You guys go on ahead and get Pearl back!"  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"Let's go, aibou," Yami agreed, and the remaining five, including Yami, walked through the vortex, Yugi throwing one last look back at Tea before he did so.  
  
"Be okay, Tea," he whispered to himself.  
  
************  
  
Tea turned to face the misty spirit from her end of the red carpet, her blue eyes boring into the spirit's transparent ones.  
  
"All right, what's this challenge?" Tea asked boldly, trying not to show her fear.  
  
The spirit chuckled.  
  
"You have heard, I hope my dear, of the ancient dark games?" The spirit asked, grinning a wispy grin as she floated back and forth.  
  
"Dark Games!" Tea thought to herself, horrified. "The Dark Games are what Yami Malik and Yami Bakura played! And Mai, Joey, and Bakura all got hurt because of them. This is bad..."  
  
Tea swallowed hard and nodded.  
  
"Yeah, I've heard of them," she replied, taking a deep breath.  
  
The spirit smiled.  
  
"Good," she replied, the area around them whirling away in a mist of black and purple; the shadow space. "You and I will duel in the Dark Game and whoever loses will stay in the dark world forever."  
  
Tea gulped. She wasn't that great of a duelist yet, but in order to help Yugi, she'd have to win...  
  
Tea nodded, pulling her deck out of her pocket, a duel disk appearing on her arm, shocking her. The spirit, however, merely smirked.  
  
"We know how you modern mortals play, so I'll make the new rules of the dark game as simple as possible," she informed Tea, her deck appearing on the ground beside her, and her cards floating up and hovering in front of her face. "We start with 4000 life each. Sacrifices are necessary to summon higher-class monsters, and the first to reach zero loses. Understand?"  
  
Tea nodded with a gulp, drawing five cards.  
  
"Then let the games begin," The spirit announced.  
  
"Let's duel!" Tea agreed.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 14  
  
REVIEW!!!!!  
  
"Yes, review. ^^ Thanks!" 


	15. Chapter 15: Challenges

Chapter 15: Challenges  
  
Notes: ^_^ Thanks for the reviews, and sorry for the wait! I went on a three-day vacation, and didn't get a chance to post this chapter before I left. ^^:;;;  
  
"Anyway, here comes Chapter 15. ^-^"  
  
And minor note, Aroshae is pronounced Arrow-shay. ^-^;  
  
************  
  
Chapter 15: Challenges  
  
Seto watched in horror as the rest of the scene continued to play itself out, his body still as if on autopilot, refusing to obey any of his commands.   
  
"I must be in some sort of...dream maybe..." he murmured to himself.  
  
Seto had now had stood up and faced Bakura, who was grinning evilly from across the room.  
  
"Five priests down, one and one Pharaoh left to go," he declared mercilessly, laughter in his voice.  
  
Seto's body shook in anger, grasping the Millennium Rod tightly in his hand.  
  
"Go, White Dragon!" he yelled, the dragon appearing beside him, roaring loudly.  
  
In his mind, Seto was stunned.  
  
"The White Dragon...?" he murmured to himself. "Isn't that what the priest calls the Blue Eyes White Dragon?"  
  
"Seto, WAIT!" Yami yelled from beside Seto, putting out a hand as if to stop him from what he was about to do.  
  
"Attack now!" Seto yelled, the White Dragon, or Blue Eyes White Dragon, letting out a giant burst stream of white lighting, aiming straight for the huge monster beside Bakura.  
  
But as soon as the attack neared the great beast, it disappeared. Seto gaped mentally, shocked.  
  
"How did it...?" he wondered, but his body was acting on autopilot again.  
  
"Darn!" Seto shouted, angrily, Bakura sneering from the other side of the room.  
  
Yami turned to face Seto, his face serious.  
  
"Seto listen to me," he said sternly, and seriously. "We have to combine our powers in order to defeat Bakura!"  
  
Seto nodded slowly.  
  
"All right Pharaoh," he replied. "What is your plan?"  
  
The real Seto raised an eyebrow. Pharaoh? Could this place be the ancient past? No, no, that was impossible. Seto shook his head in his mind. This was just a nonsense-illusion...he thought to himself. An illusion...  
  
Or was it?  
  
**********  
  
Meanwhile, Tea drew a sixth card to start her turn and faced the misty spirit boldly.  
  
"My move," she declared, slapping a card down on the field. "Maha Vailo in attack mode!" Tea called, her monster appearing on her side of the field. "And I put Magician's Spellbook on him, raising his attack power all the way up to 2550, due to his special effect."  
  
The blue spirit didn't appear phased, however.  
  
"Anything else, my dear," she asked in her wispy voice.  
  
Tea bit her lip. All of her other cards were monsters so they wouldn't be of much use to her now, as she'd already played Maha Vailo.  
  
"I end my turn!" Tea called, another card floating up from the deck and floating in front of the misty spirit.  
  
"My turn," she announced calmly. "I play the magic card, Tribute to the Doomed, discarding one of my cards to mummify and destroy your monster."  
  
Tea gasped, wide-eyed, as a card fell to the graveyard from the spirit's "hand" and large bandages wrapped themselves around Maha Vailo.  
  
"No!" Tea cried as a large hand came up from a black hole in the ground and Maha Vailo was dragged down again in its grasp. "Maha Vailo!"  
  
  
  
The spirit smirked.  
  
"You are very naïve, mortal girl," she mused, a monster appearing on her side of the field. "I play Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier in attack mode, and have it directly attack your life points."  
  
A man with a dark robe and a long spear appeared on the misty blue spirit's field, its attack power 1500. Tea bit her lip as he reared back his arm and tossed the spear at her, it striking just below her knee.  
  
Tea screamed, wincing in pain as her life points fell to 2500. Tea shakily drew out another card, praying for something stronger than the Spear Soldier.  
  
"All illusions are real in the Dark Game..." she murmured to herself, trembling. "When the Spear Soldier hit me, I felt the spear point as if it were driving into my knee."  
  
The spirit smirked.  
  
"Are you beginning to feel the realness of the Dark Game yet, mortal girl?" she taunted. "Beginning to realize you can never defeat Aroshae, the guardian of Anubis's temple?"  
  
Tea frowned, irritated.  
  
"I will beat you," she vowed, looking at her hand. "Darn...not good monsters...and no magic cards to help me out. I guess I'm stuck with this move for now," she thought to herself, placing one monster face down in defense mode on her duel disk.  
  
"One monster in defense. I'll end," Tea declared, the card appearing face down in front of her.  
  
Aroshae smiled.  
  
"It just goes to show you that mortals can't even play the game THEY created," she hissed gleefully, another card floating up to her. "I, however, will do everything in my power to protect this temple, which is why I specialize in Gravekeeper cards."  
  
Tea raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Gravekeeper cards?" she murmured, but she didn't have time to ponder on them, as Aroshae made her move.  
  
"First I summon Gravekeeper's Assassin in attack mode," she declared, another man wearing a dark robe appearing on the field, his attack power 1500 as well."  
  
Tea cringed. This attack was going to hurt...  
  
"Now! Attack the defense monster!" Aroshae declared, the Spear Soldier throwing his spear at the defense, ripping through its mere 1200 defense, Tea's life points dropping to 2400.  
  
"Aa!" Tea cried, biting her lip.  
  
Aroshae smirked.  
  
"My Spear Soldier is allowed to deal damage depending on the difference between the defending monster's defense," she explained to Tea. "But that is hardly anything compared to this! Assassin! Attack directly!"  
  
*************  
  
"Yaaaaaahhh!"  
  
Yugi stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide as he whirled around.  
  
"Th...that was Tea!" he cried, starting to run back a little, but Bastet got in his way.  
  
"Mortal, you cannot stop the challenge now that the girl has accepted," she said solemnly, flicking her tail back and forth, her eyes narrowed. "Just hope that your friend is strong enough to pass. There is no point in watching."  
  
Amber looked worried.  
  
"I...I guess she's right..." Duke muttered, biting his lip. "I'm sure Tea can win, though."  
  
Yami nodded.  
  
"You must have faith, aibou," he added to Yugi, who was looking quite distracted.  
  
Yugi sighed sadly and turned around again.  
  
"Okay, Yami," he said slowly, as the group began to walk forward again, but inside he couldn't help but feel that something bad was going to happen to Tea...  
  
************  
  
"Hello?" Ishizu answered as she picked up the phone at her office desk.  
  
She wasn't expecting any calls, and wondered who it was that could be calling her.  
  
"Ishizu?" Came a rushed and frightened-sounding voice that Ishizu recognized.  
  
"Mokuba Kaiba?" she asked, confused. "What's wrong?"  
  
Mokuba took a deep breath before continuing.  
  
"Well, my brother went off earlier today to go visit Yugi, but now I can't seem to contact him, or any of Yugi's friends either," he replied. "And my brother's cell-phone said he was out of calling area, but that can't be right cause he only left about two hours ago!"  
  
Puzzle, Ishizu narrowed her eyes, thinking.  
  
"Do you know where they are?" Mokuba finally asked, sounding quite worried.  
  
Ishizu sighed.  
  
"I do not, Mokuba," she replied. "But I do sense danger surrounding Yugi and the others."  
  
  
  
Mokuba gasped.  
  
"My brother's in trouble!" he cried.  
  
Ishizu regretting telling the boy that, but she couldn't lie. Lying only made things all the more troublesome, and deadly, she thought to herself, remembering what hiding the truth had done for her and Malik a while ago.  
  
Ishizu bit her lip.  
  
"I didn't say that," she replied. "I am just saying that danger is all around us, and that your brother may be involved with it."  
  
Mokuba sighed sadly.  
  
"Okay, thanks anyway Ishizu," Mokuba mumbled, hanging up the phone with a sigh.  
  
************  
  
Pearl sighed, kicking a pebble across the stone floors and freezing it before it reached the wall. Smiling, she looked over at Anubis hopefully, who was still watching the puddle, amused.  
  
"Anubis?" she asked chirpily. "Is Amber near here so I can show off my powers?"  
  
Anubis grinned.  
  
"Patience, young one," he replied smoothly. "You will get your moment of victory soon enough. My temple guardians are merely slowing your cousin and her friends down."  
  
Suddenly, Anubis jerked and stood up quickly, a look of anger on his face. Pearl gasped and looked up at him.  
  
"Anubis!" she cried, fearfully. "What's wrong?"  
  
Anubis growled, bearing his jackal-teeth.  
  
"There is another dark force here...that I am not in control of..." he murmured angrily.   
  
Pearl's eyes widened.  
  
"A dark force? Like an evil person?" she asked, her voice shaking.  
  
"Yes..." Anubis muttered, tossing a bit more powder into the puddle, attempting to locate this mysterious force. "But who or what is it...?"  
  
Pearl bit her lip. Despite her anger, she didn't want Amber to run into the evil person in the temple.  
  
***********  
  
Tea's legs wobbled as she clutched her chest, shaking from the attack on her life points, leaving her at a mere 200.  
  
"I end my turn," Aroshae replied gleefully, watching Tea stumbled forward slightly. "Feeling the pain of the Dark Game now? You should be, seeing as how your balance is so off."  
  
Tea bit her lip, stopping herself before falling over completely. Taking a deep swallow, she put her shaking fingers over her next card on her deck.  
  
"I've...I've got to...win this turn..." she thought to herself. "If Aroshae attacks me again I...I won't last..."  
  
Slowly, she started to pick the card off the deck.  
  
"I know I can do this...if I just believe in myself..." she murmured.  
  
~I believe in you, Tea...~  
  
With Yugi's voice echoing in her mind, Tea drew her card and put it up to her face. With a small smile, she shoved it into the magic and trap slot of her Duel Disk.  
  
"I activate Jar of Greed, allowing me to draw two more cards," Tea declared weakly, picking the next two cards and staring at her hand for a moment before widening his eyes.  
  
"There it is..." she whispered, looking at her hand. "The way to win!"  
  
Aroshae raised a blue eyebrow.  
  
"The way to win, dearest?" she whispered silkily. "Come, come, dear. You're at 200 life points and can barely stand. You won't be winning anytime soon."  
  
Tea frowned.  
  
"You're...wrong!" she snapped, playing a magic card. "I activate Dark Hole, a magic card that destroys all of your monsters."  
  
The two Gravekeeper monsters vanished in the black abyss, Tea sighing with relief.  
  
"Now I play another magic card, Monster Reborn, allowing me to revive Ancient Elf, who was destroyed by your Spear Soldier," she declared. "And then I'll sacrifice it for Dark Magician Girl!"  
  
The Dark Magician's apprentice appeared on Tea's side of the field in place of Ancient Elf, it's attack power 2000. Aroshae raised an eyebrow as the female magician winked cheerfully.  
  
"That monster has only 2000 attack power, and you can't summon anything else now," she pointed out. "You won't be able to beat me with that kind of attack."  
  
Hand quivering, Tea placed another monster card on the field.  
  
"There's more than one way to summon...a monster," she muttered as a strange female monster appeared on the field, her attack power 2000 as well. "I special summon...Soul of Purity and Light...in attack mode..."  
  
Aroshae's eyes widened.  
  
"B...but how?!" she cried, looking at the monster.  
  
Tea smiled softly.  
  
"I can special summon this monster...by sacrificing two light attributed monsters in the graveyard," she explained. "Now...my two monsters will attack your life points directly...and wipe you out!"  
  
Aroshae screamed as Dark Magician Girl and Soul of Purity and Light both combined their powers and attacked her life points directly, giving off 4000 points of damage.  
  
"I...win..." Tea murmured, falling to her knees as the shadow space of the Dark Game faded away, Aroshae disappearing as well.  
  
~I knew you could do it, Tea...~  
  
Tea smiled softly. She felt as if she could almost hear Yugi's voice in her head speaking to her.  
  
"I won...Yugi..." she whispered, her eyes drifting shut as she passed out on the ground.  
  
************  
  
Bastet hissed as she slinked up to a room in front of them.  
  
"Stay close," she ordered the others behind her. "This could be another trap."  
  
Duke leaned over and peered into the room. All that could be seen was a long corridor of dirty path, leading up to a golden door at the end of the stretch.  
  
"That must be Anubis's lair!" Amber cried, pointing ahead.  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"I'll bet your right," he agreed, stepping forward into the room, past Bastet. "We just have to get there..."  
  
Bastet narrowed her eyes and flicked her tail.  
  
"Wait, mortal!" she snapped suddenly, as the room suddenly shook, pieces of the floor disappearing and bits of stone flying about.  
  
"Whoa!" Yugi cried, trying to keep his balance as the bit of floor he was standing on separated from the rest, shaking madly as it became surrounded by a deep, dark pit of blackness.  
  
************  
  
End of Chapter 15  
  
Now, PLEASE!!!! Review, okay?! ^_^;  
  
"Thanks! Next chapter up tomorrow!" 


	16. Chapter 16: The Dice of Fate

Chapter 16: The Dice of Fate  
  
Notes: I'm back everyone!  
  
"-_-X We're back. And yep, here's Chapter 16. Thanks SO much for reviewing! ^_^"  
  
^_^; Yep! And Skull Dice will be referred to as Devil's Dice. ^-^  
  
***********  
  
Chapter 16: The Dice of Fate  
  
Priest Seto sighed, the White Dragon beside him. He and his dragon-ka had been sitting down in the corner of the green-lit room, Priest Seto watching his reincarnate, hoping he would awaken at some point soon.  
  
"I wonder what the others are doing..." he murmured to himself, closing his eyes in concentration. "Perhaps I can find out..."  
  
The White Dragon made a low purring noise as Priest Seto patted its head gently.  
  
***********  
  
Seto, however, was still facing the visions in his dream...or nightmare it could be called, he thought to himself as a huge blast shot out and hit the Blue Eyes White Dragon, letting it fall to the ground, dead.  
  
The most horrifying aspect of it all, however, was that he himself felt as though he were dying, and a moment later, found himself hovering over the battlefield like a spirit.  
  
Various other spirits were around as well as he watched Yugi, no, he corrected himself, YAMI confront what Seto assumed to be Yami Bakura and his horrible beast.  
  
What caught Seto's eye, however, during the battle, was two people sitting outside a window cut in the stone of the palace, a young woman and a boy; the boy in the very frightened-looking girl's arms.  
  
"What..." Seto began, wanting to get a closer look, but his autopilot body went forward anyhow, and Seto gasped when he recognized the two figures.  
  
One was Tea, or at least, what appeared to be Tea in an Egyptian dress, attempting to console none other than Mokuba, who was crying heavily into her shoulder.  
  
"Mokuba..." Seto whispered, watching sadly, wishing with all his heart not to have been shown that scene.  
  
Dangling in midair, helpless to go and comfort his younger brother, Seto could practically feel the sting of tears in his own eyes. Down on the field, there was a large explosion, and suddenly, all that was left on the field was the shattered Millennium Puzzle and the Millennium Ring, both of which were glowing brightly.  
  
"What...where did the Pharaoh and Bakura go?" Seto asked aloud, his dream-instincts taking over again.  
  
"They have been sealed into the items," Came what appeared to be Ishizu's soft voice.   
  
Seto turned around to see her, or at least, a vague outline of her hanging in midair.  
  
"But at least one thing has been done," she continued. "The darkness has been sealed."  
  
Darkness has been sealed? The Pharaoh in the Millennium Puzzle? Yami Bakura in the Ring...?  
  
Thoughts whirled through Seto's confused mind. Was this really a dream, or had these events actually occurred in the past...  
  
  
  
"If that's the case..." Seto whispered to himself. "I'm not me...but the high priest of ancient Egypt..."  
  
************  
  
"Yugi!" Amber yelled, watching their small friend teeter on the edge of the small piece of rock he was standing on as the pieces settled down once again.  
  
"Yugi! Are you all right?!" Yami cried, flying over to Yugi, who nodded, looking a little shaken.  
  
"Y...yeah, I'm fine," he assured his friends. "Just a little...shaken, no pun intended."  
  
He gave a weak smiled.  
  
Yami sighed with relief.  
  
"Thank goodness," he sighed, Bastet flicking her tail.  
  
"Anubis expects people like me to fall into an abyss and die?" she asked, looking quite insulted. "How pathetic."  
  
There was suddenly a flapping noise and everyone turned around, trying to locate the source.  
  
"Hey, where's that coming from?" Duke asked, looking around.  
  
Yugi gasped and pointed upwards suddenly.  
  
"Look out, guys!" he yelled, everyone looking up to see a strange being with black, bat-like wings and an evil, black face, grinning.  
  
The strangest part about this creature, however, was the fact that he was carrying in his hands a large, purple cube, with indentations on the side that looked like small circles, making the cube look distinctly like a...  
  
"It's a die!" Duke called, pointing upwards at the creature, who chuckled in a high-pitched manner.  
  
"Very true," The creature laughed, holding up the die. "But this is no ordinary die, intruders."  
  
Yami raised an eyebrow.  
  
"That creature is a Duel Monster," he commented to Yugi, who nodded.  
  
"Yeah, Devil's Dice!" he agreed, glaring up at the creature.  
  
Devil's Dice merely chuckled again in its annoying way.  
  
"I see you've heard of me," he laughed. "Good. But I'll have you know I am the second guardian of Anubis's temple, and you won't all make it through this challenge."  
  
Amber clenched her fists as Bastet huffed.  
  
"You present absolutely no challenge to ME," Bastet scoffed, scrunching up her nose. "Just tell us the game so we can complete it and be on our way."  
  
Devil's Dice giggled, waving the die around in the air as it chuckled.  
  
"Cocky, aren't we Bastet?" he chuckled, accusingly. "Well, that cocky attitude of yours will fade after this game. I will role this die on your command, and whatever number it lands on is the number of members of your group to be left behind with me."  
  
Everyone gasped.  
  
"That's no fair!" Amber growled.  
  
Devil's Dice continued to smirk.  
  
"Well, you intruding in Anubis's private temple is not fair either," he pointed out. "If the rest of the group, if there is any left over, can get a piece of gold out of Anubis's lair and bring it back to me before times up, the people captive will be freed."  
  
Duke bit his lip.  
  
"If the lowest number on a die is one...that means that someone must stay behind no matter what we roll..." he thought to himself, a bead of sweat trickling down his cheek.  
  
  
  
Devil's Dice smirked.  
  
"Well? On whose command shall I roll?" he asked tauntingly.  
  
Duke stepped forward.  
  
"Mine," he replied.  
  
Devil's Dice grinned.  
  
"Ah...a mortal who thinks he knows dice," Devil's Dice taunted. "Fine, fine, just announce when."  
  
Amber clenched her fists worriedly.  
  
"If anyone knows dice, its Duke," she murmured. "He's our best shot at getting a decent roll. Come on, Duke!"  
  
"Now," Duke said firmly, Devil's Dice throwing the die in its hands up in the air, the die spinning around as it fell toward the floor.  
  
"Get a one, get a one," Duke whispered to himself, everyone watching the moving dice with bated breath.  
  
Devil's Dice's eyes widened as the die rolled over from two, to six, and finally stopped on one, just as Duke had wanted.  
  
Amber gulped.  
  
"It's...a one," she murmured.  
  
Devil's Dice grinned.  
  
"All right then, one of your party must stay with me," he said gleefully, extending his hand out. "Well? Which shall it be?"  
  
Yugi bit his lip. Should he volunteer?  
  
But before Yugi had time to ponder the decision, Duke cocked his head with a grin.  
  
"Well, I guess I'll stay behind then," he said with a grin.  
  
Amber's eyes widened.  
  
"No! Duke..." she started, running over to him, but he shrugged.  
  
"Look Amber, dice was my game, and I knew that someone would have to stay behind. Don't worry about me," he assured her, winking. "I'll be fine."  
  
"Duke..." Yugi said slowly.  
  
Devil's Dice smirked, Duke suddenly disappearing and reappearing high up above them in a metal cage. Duke looked around, stunned, then looked down at the others.  
  
"Duke!" Amber cried, looking up at him before glaring at the Devil's Dice. "How long do we have to get the golden piece?"  
  
The dice monster smirked.  
  
"Twenty mortal minutes," he replied, causing everyone to gasp. "After that, he will be...well, killed, to put it bluntly.  
  
"Twenty?!?" Amber cried, shocked.  
  
"That's not fair!" Yugi added, indignantly.  
  
Yami narrowed his eyes as Devil's Dice shrugged.  
  
"You agreed to this game mortals, so you must play by my rules," he reminded them. "Nineteen minutes left..."  
  
Amber bit her lip, tears welling up in her eyes. Yugi stepped over carefully to the next piece of separated stone as Bastet began leaping across the stones herself.  
  
"Mortal girl, let's go," she snapped.  
  
Amber clenched her fists, casting one last look up at Duke before turning away quickly.  
  
"We'll be right back Duke, don't worry!" she called, following Yugi over the separated rocks.  
  
Duke sighed, resting his forehead on the bars of the cage.  
  
"Okay," he called, wondering what other challenges lay ahead, and if they really could make it back in time.  
  
************  
  
Thoth, Joey, and Tristan continued walking through various black vortexes, hopelessly lost. Tristan growled in frustration as he reached the same point as before, punching the wall with his fist.  
  
"I don't BELIVE this!" he yelled, rubbing his soar fist. "We've been to this exact place about five times already!"  
  
Thoth sighed.  
  
"I believe this is the incorrect path," he said simply. "I've been in touch with Bastet, and she has informed us that she and her team have already encountered two guardians, while we have encountered none."  
  
Joey scratched his head.  
  
"So Taerro was an intruder too?" he murmured. "Weird..."  
  
Tristan sighed, leaning against the wall.  
  
"Sheesh, then how do we find our way back?" he muttered, kicking a pebble through a vortex.  
  
Thoth closed his eyes.  
  
"Perhaps we cannot go back, but maybe, if I can pinpoint Bastet's location, we can join her..." he muttered.  
  
***********  
  
Anubis was watching Bastet and the others make their way across the pit, Pearl over by a black vortex in the wall, nervously freezing a large, stone chair.  
  
"Anubis...is the bad-guy gonna hurt Amber?" she muttered, trying not to sound too worried.  
  
Anubis huffed.  
  
"With Bastet around, I'm sure the bad-guy won't harm her," he muttered in irritation.  
  
There was suddenly a high pitched laugh from inside the vortex that caused Pearl to jump. She slowly backed away, her heart thudding, as Yami Taerro emerged from the vortex, grinning broadly, the golden medallion around his neck glowing.  
  
"You need to correct some of those vortex destinations, jackal," he said casually to Anubis, who was on his feet, snarling. "I had to end up teleporting here because of their ridiculousness."  
  
Anubis growled, Pearl quivering in fear.  
  
"Identify yourself, mortal," he demanded of Yami Taerro, who smirked.  
  
"Mortal?" he asked quizzically. "Pathetic. I am no mortal..." he added, his eyes wide as he quickly reached out and grasped the pearl around Pearl's neck. "And soon, I will have no connections to any mortal!"  
  
************  
  
  
  
Meanwhile, Seto opened his eyes slowly and looked up at the green flickering ceiling. Weakly, he sat up and looked around, spotting Priest Seto and the White Dragon in the corner. Priest Seto grinned.  
  
"Ah...I see you're awake again," he commented. "Good."  
  
Seto didn't look happy at all, however. And it wasn't just because of the drain. Many things were puzzling him, and he needed to get them straight.  
  
"What happened?" he whispered.  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow.  
  
"You mean after the Vampire Lord stole your energies?" he asked.  
  
  
  
Seto nodded slowly.  
  
"Well," Priest Seto began, recalling the White Dragon and standing up. "I transferred some of my energies to you to help you out. And it looks like they did."  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes.  
  
"You transferred part of you to me?" he repeated.  
  
Priest Seto nodded.  
  
"Yes..." he replied, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"  
  
Seto looked down at the ground. It all made perfect sense now. What he'd been witnessing was not an ordinary dream, but the last memories of the priest.  
  
"What happened?" Priest Seto asked quietly after a moment.  
  
Seto looked up.  
  
"Mokuba," he said simply.  
  
Priest Seto raised his eyebrows.  
  
"What?" he asked quietly.  
  
"The past. You died and left him alone," Seto continued. "While I was unconscious, I had a dream which involved a battling between Yami Bakura, you, and the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle. Mokuba was in that dream too."  
  
Priest Seto looked shocked.  
  
"By transferring my spirit...I must have transferred to you some of my memories..." he murmured.  
  
"Yes," Seto finished, standing up and stumbling a bit before catching his balance.  
  
Priest Seto eyed him, changing the subject.  
  
"You shouldn't get up so soon, you know," he commented. "You're still weak."  
  
Seto scowled, retrieving the Millennium Rod and replacing the end that covered the dagger.  
  
"I'm not going to lie around while everyone else is still trying to get to Anubis," he muttered in irritation, looking at the vortex. "Let's go."  
  
Priest Seto sighed and smiled. That, he thought, was exactly what HE would have said back in Ancient Egypt.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 16  
  
REVIEW!!  
  
"Yes, please do! And next chapter up soon! ^_^" 


	17. Chapter 17: The Vampire's Rebirth

Chapter 17: The Vampire's Rebirth  
  
Notes: ^_^! Time repeating itself...that's kinda the theme of my next story.   
  
"-_-X Don't get too scared. How could SK kill her favorite character?"  
  
^_^;; **innocent whistle* Okay, in answer to some questions: Alan: As for how he got to Egypt so quickly, well, Yami Taerro has some odd abilities, and he's about to get even creepier in this chapter. ^_~  
  
"^_^; Anyway, here's Chapter 17."  
  
************  
  
Chapter 17: The Vampire's Rebirth  
  
"Bastet..." Thoth's voice echoed through Bastet's mind as she leapt from rock to rock, almost at the other end of the ditch, where the golden double-doors leading to Anubis's lair were.  
  
Bastet's ears perked.  
  
"What is it, Thoth?" she asked breathlessly, skidding as she came to a stop on the landing just before the doors, Amber and Yugi tagging along behind her, Yami floating alongside his spiritual partner.  
  
"We have taken the wrong path," Thoth replied. "We have been walking in circles for hours, and in order to join you, I must know your location."  
  
  
  
Bastet shook her head furiously, her eyes still closed.  
  
"No Thoth, you can't teleport to me in Anubis's temple," she replied. "This place is full of traps and blockades, and should you teleport, you might end up somewhere you do not want to be."  
  
Thoth listened to Bastet and nodded slowly.  
  
"I agree, now that you mention it," he replied. "We will have to go around the hard way back and hopefully join up with you soon."  
  
"All right then."  
  
Bastet cut off the mental link and faced the doors, Yugi helped Amber over the last small jump and onto the safe ledge. The three looked suspiciously at the doors for a moment before Yami spoke up.  
  
"We must enter now," he informed them, floating forward. "We must save Pearl, and Duke as well."  
  
Yugi nodded.  
  
"Yeah," he agreed, fretfully thinking about Tea again, wondering if she'd lost the battle and ended up like Duke.  
  
Or even WON the battle and wound up like Duke!  
  
"Yeah..." Amber murmured, reaching for the handle.  
  
***********  
  
Pearl shrieked as the pearl suddenly lit up madly, Yami Taerro clutching it in his hands, grinning madly, a blue glow forming around the two beings, engulfing them.  
  
"What's going on!" Anubis snarled, leaping forward, but staying clear of the blue glow, wondering what was going on.  
  
"Let go of my pearl!" Pearl yelled, Yami Taerro starting to laugh a high pitched laugh.  
  
The laugh suddenly grew louder, and louder, and more twisted and evil by the second, until it was completely different from the original laugh. Pearl watched in horror as the teenage boy in front of her suddenly became two beings.  
  
A larger and more malevolent-looking being had separated from the boy, who fell lifelessly to the ground in a heap as the new being continued to chuckled, stretching his long arms, each with sharp, purple nails at the end of each hand, and clenching his fists.  
  
"Frreeee at last!" he hissed, his voice wispy and low.  
  
Anubis stepped back, his white eyes wide.  
  
"What on earth?!" he demanded, Pearl clutching her pearl and backing away in fear from the new man.  
  
Pearl quivered in fear as the man looked up at her.  
  
"Thank you," he whispered to her, drawing closer. "You and your magical...pearl gave me the energy I needed."  
  
Pearl trembled as she leaned against the wall, wishing Anubis would hit the man, do SOMETHING to help her.  
  
"W...w...what are you?" she stammered, her eyes wide with fear.  
  
The man smirked, his dark lips drawing tightly over the purple complexion of his face. He opened his mouth to speak, revealing razor sharp fangs.  
  
"I am the Vampire Lord," he replied. "Or at least, I am part of him. You see, his spirit and I are one, making me an invincible enemy. And you...mortal girl..." he murmured, dragging his nails lightly over her pale cheek. "Gave me the energy I needed to become what I once was and separate myself from that fool."  
  
He jerked his head back at what Pearl suspected was the real boy, who stirred slightly. Anubis, however, growled and darted forward, his ax raised.  
  
"I don't care WHO you are," he snarled, raising the ax. "You will die here for harming this girl!"  
  
The Vampire Lord smirked.  
  
"I don't think so," he replied, becoming practically transparent as he started to fade away. "But I will be back. Mark my words. Egypt will be mine VERY soon..."  
  
  
  
And in a puff of smoke, the Vampire Lord vanished, and a small, black, bat flew over to the double doors, which were opening, and the bat darted out and away.  
  
Enraged, Anubis ran over to the doors, but was stopped as the burst open, revealing Bastet, Amber, Yugi, and Yami in spiritual form. Bastet's eyes widened as she spotted Anubis.  
  
"Anubis!" she hissed, arching her back as Amber gasped.  
  
"Pearl! There you are! Do you know how worried I've been?!" she cried, looking over at her cousin in disbelief.  
  
Pearl narrowed her eyes, her fear being replaced by the old anger she felt toward her cousin.  
  
"Why would you care? I just wrecked everything anyway," Pearl scoffed as Anubis smirked at Bastet.  
  
"Well, well, Bastet. Work too tough for you these days? You seem to be relying on the powers of spirits and mortals quite often," he taunted, showing off his long, sharp teeth.  
  
Bastet hissed.  
  
"And you seem to have gone so low as to pick up mortal children to do your bidding," she scoffed in reply, causing Anubis's face to twist in anger.  
  
"What?!" he snapped in reply, as Yugi's eyes frantically scanned the room for any gold.  
  
"While they're arguing, let's find that gold piece for Duke, Yami," Yugi informed his friend, and Yami nodded.  
  
"Good idea, aibou," he replied, and Yugi crept away from Bastet and peeked inside of a trunk, looking for some gold piece to offer the Devil's Dice.  
  
Amber looked taken aback.  
  
"Pearl...I didn't mean what I said," she said softly. "I was upset and angry and just lashed out at you. I'm sorry..."  
  
Pearl clenched her fists.  
  
"Pearl listen," Amber pleaded. "You have every right to be mad at me, but everyone's in danger here. Anubis is not your friend..."  
  
Bastet hissed as Anubis swung down his ax at her and the two began to fight.  
  
"Anubis is more of a friend than YOU are!" Pearl shot back, her eyes starting to sting.  
  
"Pearl, please!" Amber pleaded. "People are in danger! Tea had to fight a spirit and Duke's been trapped and if we don't do something soon, he'll die. You've got to believe us and not Anubis. We wouldn't hurt anybody but HE would! He just wants power!"  
  
Yugi bit his lip, hoping Pearl might understand a bit of what he was saying.  
  
"Anubis just using you and your pearl!" he called boldly as Bastet slashed through Anubis's arm, causing him to howl.  
  
Angrily, he slammed Bastet up against the wall, causing it to cave into the next room, where the two continued their battle.  
  
"You've got to listen to me..." Amber pleaded, walking forward toward her cousin, whose face was red.  
  
"You blamed me for everything!" Pearl shouted suddenly, closing her eyes and letting a stream of tears go down her cheeks. "If anything went wrong it was MY fault! My fault! And now everyone's in trouble and fighting and bad-guys are chasing everyone because of ME! Everyone wants ME! Me and my stupid, stupid, PEARL!" she yelled, yanking the pearl of her neck and throwing it away from her with all her strength.  
  
The pearl clinked as it hit the stone-built wall and fell to the floor, Pearl falling to her knees, sobbing. Amber bent down next to her cousin and put a comforting arm around her as Yugi overturned another chest, hoping for a bit of gold, but only finding tubes of potions and various powders.  
  
Yami glanced down at Yugi, who was finishing through a bunch of tubes.  
  
"Hurry, aibou!" he urged him, floating over to the battle to see how Bastet was doing.  
  
***********  
  
Thoth, Tristan, and Joey passed through a black vortex, heading back toward the room where they'd left Seto and Priest Seto with Yami Taerro when Tristan nearly slammed into Seto himself, who was about to go through the same vortex.  
  
"Whoa!" Tristan yelled, as Seto backed up, looking quite shocked himself. "Man, you scared me!"  
  
Joey raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Where's Taerro?" he asked, studying Seto closely. "And what took you so long? And this way's a dead end so we're going to use the other portal."  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes in irritation at all of Joey's questions but followed as Thoth lead them back through the vortex.  
  
"I do not know where Taerro went, and what took me so long was the fact that I'd been battling with him," Seto replied simply, definitely not willing to tell Joey that he'd not only lost, but been knocked out and drained.  
  
Joey raised an eyebrow as they walked through the vortex outside that Yugi and Bastet had taken earlier and hurried down the corridor.  
  
"Well, who won?" he pried, Seto making a small huffing sound and not replying at first.  
  
Tristan rolled his eyes as Joey smirked.  
  
"You lost, didn't you?" Joey teased.  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes as the four, and Priest Seto, hurried down the tunnel-way.  
  
"He drained me of my energies," he retorted. "So therefore, yes, in a sense, he won."  
  
Joey raised an eyebrow as Tristan grumbled.  
  
"That stupid spirit," he muttered, as they walked into a room where a limp figure was lying on the ground.  
  
Tristan gasped, running over and kneeling down beside the figure.  
  
"It's Tea!" he cried, Thoth waiting by the next portal, staring at Tristan emotionlessly.  
  
Joey hurried over and knelt down beside his friend as well. Tristan put a finger to her wrist and sighed with relief.  
  
"Whew, she's still alive," he muttered, looking down at her. "I wonder what happened though...and why did Yugi and the others leave her behind?"  
  
Joey shrugged.  
  
"Got me..." he murmured. "We may as well take her with us though."  
  
Tristan nodded, lifting Tea up off the ground and turning around.  
  
"Okay," Joey said to Thoth and Seto, both of whom were ready to go to the next room. "Let's hope we don't find the rest of the gang lying around like that."  
  
He shuddered as they passed through the portal and continued walking. Priest Seto nodded, although only Seto and Thoth could hear him.  
  
"Indeed," he agreed.  
  
************  
  
Meanwhile, Mokuba was sitting on his bed, looking sadly down into his pillow. He'd called everyone he could think of and yet no one had seen any sign of his brother or Yugi or any of his friends.  
  
"Where are you, niisama?" he murmured to himself, hugging his pillow to his chest tightly.  
  
He knew something bad had happened to his brother. He just knew it. There was a part of him that could just tell that wherever Seto was, he'd been involved in some sort of trouble. Ishizu had even confirmed that feeling with her message.  
  
"But Seto's got the priest spirit around..." Mokuba thought to himself. "Maybe he'll be okay with him around..."  
  
Feeling silly, Mokuba sat up boldly.  
  
"What am I saying?" he muttered, brushing away loose tears. "Of COURSE niisama will be okay! And he'll be home soon!"  
  
***********  
  
"It's all my fault..." Pearl sobbed, hugging Amber tightly, forgetting her anger, forgetting how Amber had treated her earlier. "My fault..."  
  
Amber shook her head, patting her cousin's back tenderly.  
  
"No, Pearl," she replied softly. "It's not. I'm just as much to blame. We all make mistakes...but we can make up for them by doing the right thing later."  
  
Pearl clung onto Amber tightly.  
  
"Really?" she asked.  
  
Amber nodded with a smile.  
  
"Really," she replied. "We've got to do the right thing and help out the others, okay? Are you with me?"  
  
  
  
Pearl hesitated for a moment as she broke away from Amber, but upon thinking about it, she grasped Amber's hand with a small smile.  
  
"Yeah," she replied. "I'm with you guys."  
  
Pearl liked the way that sounded.  
  
***********  
  
Meanwhile, Seto and the others had made there way to the doors of Anubis's lair and opened them up to see several different things. First, they noticed Amber and Pearl standing up together, smiling.  
  
Then Yugi, overturning chests and sorting through heaps of things that looked like things you'd find in the science lab. Then, which was the most hard to miss, was Bastet and Anubis's growling and howling and slashing at each other in the next room.  
  
"What the heck?!?!" Joey cried, looking around in disbelief. "What's going on in here?"  
  
His eyes fell upon Taerro, who was still lying in a heap in the corner of the room, unnoticed by the others.  
  
"Whoa!" he cried, running over to Taerro, unsure of what might happen. "Taerro? You okay, man?"  
  
He shook Taerro gently, gulping, hoping that the evil spirit was not still in control of the body. Meanwhile, Yugi's eyes wandered over to Tea who was lying limply in Tristan's arms and he gasped.  
  
"Tea!" he cried, dropping a powder on the floor and running over to her. "What happened to her?!"  
  
Seto glanced around the room, looking for some sign of Yami Taerro, but only noticed the Taerro Joey was shaking, who looked far too innocent to be Yami Taerro.  
  
"Is that...the vampire?" he asked Priest Seto, who shook his head.  
  
"No...there is no evil in that body..." he murmured, narrowing his eyes. "But how...how could there not be? You didn't banish the evil..."  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes as well. What had happened to the evil spirit?  
  
Meanwhile Thoth hurriedly looked over at the battle going on between Bastet and Anubis and smirked.  
  
"Anubis!" called, a large, white orb forming in his outstretched hand. "Take this!"  
  
Tossing the orb at Anubis, it exploded on the jackal-headed deity, who howled out in pain before vanishing before everyone's eyes.  
  
***********  
  
End of Chapter 17  
  
REVIEW!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!  
  
"O_O; Yeah...reviewing is nice. ^^;;;; Ehe...okay...next chapter up soon!" 


	18. Chapter 18: Working Things Out

Chapter 18: Working Things Out  
  
Notes: ^_^; Thanks for the reviews everyone! And as always, since this is the last chapter here, my new story will be started tomorrow. XD It'll be called "Perpetual Destiny" and should be quite interesting.   
  
"Easier to understand how the plot'll work out if you've read Ancient Lies though. ^-^; But don't worry. The plot won't be EXACTLY like Ancient Lies. If it were, it'd be a tragedy, and we know how SK hates tragedy. :P"  
  
Yep. :'(. Anyway, thanks SO much for reviewing, and here's the final chapter. XD  
  
************  
  
Chapter 18: Working Things Out  
  
A few hours later, everyone was back in Domino at Duke's house, talking about the day's events. Bastet and Thoth had bid their farewells and left the group to return to Egypt.  
  
The two Egyptian deities were both sitting in the hallway of their temple, both quite pleased with their recent success in the battle with Anubis.  
  
"So what has Osiris punished Anubis with?" Bastet asked gleefully, licking her tail lightly.  
  
Thoth smiled.  
  
"Well, Anubis has been confined to his temple for a decade, as well as forbidden to contact any other being other than ourselves and the other gods," he replied, writing something on a papyrus scroll. "That should keep him out of trouble for a while."  
  
Bastet nodded in agreement.  
  
"That is one good thing," she replied with a sigh of satisfaction. "Your moon attack was quite a brilliant strategy, I must say."  
  
Thoth smiled, pleased.  
  
"It did act rather efficiently, didn't it?"  
  
Bastet nodded, her mind wandering to other things.  
  
"There are still great enemies out there, though," she murmured. "The Vampire Lord has reawakened, and several other evil spirits are still at large, and that is just the evils I can sense."  
  
Thoth nodded.  
  
"There will be trouble ahead for the mortals and the Millennium Items," he agreed.  
  
Bastet nodded.  
  
"Yes...much trouble and trial..."  
  
***********  
  
Back at Duke's game shop, the air was much lighter as the gang settled down to relax for the remainder of the evening, exhausted from the day's events.  
  
Yugi was anxiously watching Tea, who was lying on the couch, waiting for her to awaken again and explain what had happened. Was her mind in the dark world, and that was why she wasn't waking up, like Mai after dueling Yami Malik?  
  
Yami watched his partner for a moment before looking over at the other side of the room, where Seto was talking to Mokuba, who'd rushed over the instant he'd heard Seto was there. Priest Seto was watching them from above, floating in the air.  
  
"I'm gonna go see if Joey's finished making the hot chocolate yet," Mokuba announced, hopping off the couch. "I'm so glad you're okay, niisama," he added before leaving, giving his brother a quick hug.  
  
Seto smiled, returning the hug.  
  
"Yeah, me too," he replied as the little boy ran past Tristan, who was carrying a class of soda, causing the teen to nearly drop it all over the floor.  
  
"Watch it!" Tristan yelled as some soda spilled over the top and slopped onto the carpet.  
  
Duke smiled from the couch where he had been sitting with Amber and Pearl. Amber had managed to find a golden coin in one of Anubis's drawers and gotten back to the Devil's Dice just in time to free him.  
  
Now, he and Amber were just talking and watching the others.  
  
  
  
"It's okay, I'll clean it up later," he muttered as Tristan grinned at Taerro, who was sitting in a chair across the room, reading.  
  
He'd been quite shocked to know he'd been possessed for over a month and of all the destruction and chaos the evil spirit had caused. From Pearl's information, they gang had been able to deduce that Yami Taerro had stored up enough energy to separate himself from his host, Taerro, and become his old self again.  
  
Although it was not pleasant to know that an old enemy had just become stronger, it was good to have Taerro back.  
  
"How can you read at a time like this?" Joey asked, coming in from the kitchen carrying trays of soda.   
  
Taerro perked and looked up at Joey, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"A time like what, Joey?" he asked curiously, tilting his head. "Soda time?" he joked, gesturing at the tray.  
  
Joey sighed, slumping down.  
  
"I couldn't figure out how to make hot chocolate without cocoa," he muttered, glaring over at Duke who smiled innocently.  
  
"What?" he asked, looking quite surprised. "I think Mai and Amber used all of it up on that cake they made at Halloween."  
  
Joey shook his head as Taerro took a drink, as did Tristan, from the tray.  
  
"Figures," he muttered, looking over at Yugi, who grinned as Tea's eyes fluttered open.  
  
"Yu...Yugi?!" she gasped, sitting up straight. "Where am I? What happened? And what...what...huh?" she asked, looking around, completely confused.  
  
Yugi grinned, closing his eyes.  
  
"You're home, Tea," he replied, pointing to the others. "We beat Anubis and got Pearl back."  
  
Tea nodded slowly, remembering the Dark Game now.  
  
"Yes...yes...and I beat Aroshae in the Dark Game..." she murmured, causing everyone to look up, stunned.  
  
"You...you played a dark game, Tea?" Tristan repeated.  
  
"And WON!?!" Joey burst out, looking completely baffled.  
  
Tea grinned.  
  
"Yep!" she replied, Yugi smiling.  
  
"I knew you could do it, Tea," he replied, smiling over at Yami, who nodded back at his partner, also smiling.  
  
Seto sighed, leaning back as he watched Mokuba take a drink and talk with the others over by Joey and the tray. Glancing up at Priest Seto he suddenly remembered something.  
  
"I never said thank you," Seto said, not looking directly at the priest.  
  
Priest Seto raised an eyebrow, coming down to Seto's level.  
  
"For what?" he asked, looking slightly confused.  
  
A very small smile flickered across Seto's face.  
  
"For helping me out back there," he replied.  
  
Priest Seto smiled.  
  
"You couldn't leave that boy like I did," he told his reincarnate seriously.  
  
Seto closed his eyes, thinking to himself. It was as if, though he never would admit it, that he was beginning to understand the spirit of the past more, and not only that, but also beginning to form...a sort of friendship with him.  
  
And although he had felt before that he hadn't needed or wanted any friend in the world beside Mokuba, deep down, he felt that he liked the fact that the priest was "friends" with him.   
  
Pearl fingered the pearl around her neck as she leaned against Amber's shoulder. Amber had retrieved it before they had left the temple, knowing how special the pendants were to her family members.  
  
"You know what Amber?" Pearl mumbled softly, Amber and Duke looked down at the white-haired girl.  
  
"What Pearl?" Amber asked with a smile.  
  
"I think that evil bat-guy took all the power out of the pearl..." she muttered, her eyelid drooping. "I can freeze anything no matter how hard I try..."  
  
Amber frowned slightly.  
  
"Oh..." she said sadly. "That's too bad."  
  
Pearl shook her head with a smile.  
  
"Nah...maybe it's not..." she murmured, starting to fall asleep. "Now it's just a regular old pearl...but it's my pearl and no one else will want it now..."  
  
Amber and Duke chuckled.  
  
"Well, at least she forgave you," Duke pointed out with a smile.  
  
Amber nodded.  
  
"Yeah," she sighed, her eyes half-closed. "I'm just glad this whole thing's over...for now I suppose..."  
  
Pearl's eyes opened again and she clung onto Amber tighter.  
  
"Amber...do you guys always fight bad guys like them?" she asked in a small voice.  
  
Amber slowly nodded.  
  
"Well, we've encountered them several times," she admitted.  
  
Pearl looked up at her cousin worriedly.  
  
"Then they'll be back again!" she exclaimed.  
  
Amber grinned.  
  
"Don't worry," Duke assured Pearl with a smile. "We've made it through tough spots before, and we can do it again."  
  
Amber nodded.  
  
"Yeah," she agreed, looking around at the others, who were all enjoying the evening together. "As long as we stick together, we'll always come through."  
  
Yami smiled, having overheard the last line.  
  
"Quite true," he agreed to himself. "Quite true."  
  
************  
  
END OF STORY  
  
^_^ What did you think?!  
  
"Let us know in a review, and come back tomorrow for our next story, "Perpetual Destiny"! ^_^!"  
  
Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! Bye for now! ^_^ 


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